Pttffphlet  Collection- 
D$ka  University  Lib**ry 


George  Washington  Flowers 
Memorial  Collection 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

ESTABLISHED  BY  THE 
FAMILY  OF 
COLONEL  FLOWERS 


COMPIvIMEKTO  OF 

Tfie  Nortlt  Carolina  Gold-mining  and  Bullion  Go. 

NEW  YORK  CITY. 

FULTON  &  NASSAU  STREETS.  BENNETT  BUILDING. 


THE  NORTH  CAROLINA 


Golfl-mining  and  Bullion  Go 

FULTON  and  NASSAU  STS., 

(BENNETT  BUILDING.) 

NEW  YORK. 


Capital,  $2,000,000.00. 

STOCK,  $10.00  Per  Share  (Non-Assessable). 


President, 
HON.  ALONZO  B.  CORNELL, 
Ex-Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Secretary,  Treasurer, 

A.  ORNDORFF,  '                          JNO.  F.  PHILLIPS, 

Brooklyn,  New  York.  New  York. 

Board  of  "Directors. 

Hon.  ALONZO  B.  CORNELL,  JNO.  F.  PHILLIPS, 

L.  H.  PERLMAN,  J.  J.  GUTZWILER, 

G.  A.  MOULTON,  A.  ORNDORFF. 

Attorneys. 

General. 

F.  A.  DOYLE,  CHAS.  N.  CODDING, 

98  Broadway,  New  York.  45  Wall  St.,  New  York. 

For  North  Carolina,  Hon.  JAS.  MORRIS,  Mayor  of  Marion,  N.  C. 

Superintendent  of  Mining,  Fiscal  Agents  for  North  Carolina. 

C.  G.  VIELE,  Salisbury,  N.  C.      W.  H.  ROBERTS  &  CO.  Bankers,  Marion,  N.  C. 

Company's  Properties. 

McDowell  County,  N.  C.      Uwharrie  River,  Randolph,  Davidson  and 
Montgomery  Counties,  N.  C. 


Pamphlet  Collection 
Duke  University  Library 


I 


MINING  PROPERTIES 

OF  THE 

North  Carolina  Gold  Mining  and  Bullion  Co. 


The  Sensational  Event  of  the  Century  in  Mineral  Discoveries. 


Millions  of  Treasure  Within  a  Day's  Ride  of  New  York  City. 


A  Source  of  Wealth  Untold. 


Almost  Incredible  Facts,  Challenging  the  Attention  of  Mining*  Experts. 

Our  Properties.— The  valuable  mining  properties  of  The  North  Carolina  Gold- 
Mining  and  Bullion  Company  are  situated  in  McDowell,  Montgomery,  and  Kutherford 
counties,  North  Carolina.  They  consist  of  the  Cooper  tract,  rich  in  gold  ;  the  Taft  prop- 
erty, into  which  two  gold  veins  run,  and  which  is  rich  in  surface  gold  (both  being  di- 
rectly on  Muddy  Creek,  from  the  lands  adjoining  which  and  the  creek  itself  millions  in 
gold  and  diamonds  have  already  been  taken),  and  twenty  miles  of  the  UWHARRIE 
RIVER,  the  bed  of  which  (granted  by  the  Governor  and  State  of  North  Carolina)  runs 
from  one  to  ten  dollars  in  gold  to  every  cubic  yard  of  sand  and  gravel  (see  Certificate 
of  Assay  from  U.  S.  Mint  at  Charlotte,  and  those  by  Eicketts  &  Banks  of  New  York,  and 
by  Stillwell  &  Gladding,  assayers  to  the  New  York  Produce  Exchange,  given  below). 

The  Bed  of  the  River.— In  the  bed  of  the  Uwharrie  River  we  have  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  gold  properties  in  the  United  States  to-day,  for  old  miners  and 
mining  experts  employed  by  us  state  that  there  is  more  pure  gold  in  one  mile  of  the 
bed  of  this  river  than  has  ever  been  taken  out  of  the  State.  Over  twenty  millions 
in  gold  has  thus  far  been  taken  out  of  the  State. 


Report  No.  2  on  the  Uwharrie  River, 


This  valuable  deposit  has  been  discovered  in  thel 
bed  of  the  Uwharrie  river  from  its  mouth,  where  it; 
empties  into  the  Yadkin  river,  for  a  distance  of  seven 
and  three  quarters  miles-  towards  its  source,  compris- 
ing in  all  about  one  hundred  and  two  acres  covered! 
by  the  bed  of  the  river,  less  four  acres  owned  by  otherj 
parties  by  deeds  of  land  on  the  river  border,  where i 
the  metes  and  bounds  of  the  adjoining  property  run. 
to  the  center  of  the  river.  The  title  to  the  bed  of  thej 
river  is  received  by  a  warrant  in  fee  simple  from! 
the  State  of  North  Carolina,  and,  as  this  river  is  not 
navigable,  the  opinion  of  eminent  counsel  in  North] 
Carolina,  to  whom  the  matter  was  referred,  is  that 
the  title  from  the  State  of  North  Carolina  is  con- 
clusive. 

The  property,  as  stated,  covers  ninety-eight  acres, 
and  the  average  depth  of  gravel  in  the  river  is  three 
feet  three  inches.  One  acre  contains  5,135  cubic  yards, 
and  thus  the  ninety-eight  acres  contain  over  500,000 
cubic  yards,  or  about  700,000  tons  of  gravel;  which, 
computed  by  the  value  of  gravel  taken  out  recently 
from  the  bed  of  the  river  under  rather  unfavorable 
circumstances  and  after  heavy  rains,  yielded  at  the 
rate  of  twenty-four  dollars  per  ton,  and' it  is  therefore 
computed  that  the  value  of  the  gravel  on  the  entire 
ninety-eight  acres  is  over  sixteen  million  dol- 
lars in  gold,  while  it  is  believed  that  in  some  places 
where  the  small  streams,  bearing  rich  gold,  empty  into 
the  river  the  yield  will  be  largely  increased. 


*  Since  this  report  was  made  the  Company  has 
secured  fourteen  miles  more,  making  its  holdings 
over  twenty  miles  of  this  immensely  rich  river  bed. 


The  Uwharrie  river  is  only  from  fifty  to  one  hun- 
dred yards  wide,  and  in  Summer,  Autumn  and  part 
of  the  Winter  can  be  forded,  but  it  always  has  suffi- 
cient water  for  working  purposes. 

The  following  assays  of  gravel  taken  from  th  e  bed 
of  the  river  were  made  by  Messrs.  Stillwell  & 
Gladding,  official  assayers  of  the  New  York 
Prodnce  Exchange,  55  Fulton  st.,  New  York : 

No.  1  0.25  oz.  per  ton  of  2,000  lbs. 

No.  2  1.00 

No.  3  2.25      ".         "  " 

Which,  at  $20  per  ounce,  gives  an  average  of  $24  to 
each  ton.  Recent  assays  from  the  United  States  Mint 
run  much  higher.   (See  accompanying  certificate.) 

The  following  assays  of  the  gravel  were  made  by 
JProf.  Ricketts,  of  the  School  of  Mines, 
Columbia  College,  New  York : 

No.  4  1.36  oz.  per  ton  of  2,000  lbs. 

No.  5  46 

No.  6  2.01  " 

(Concentrate  5  tons)  or  an  average  of  about  $11  per 
ton. 

The  late  Senator  Hearst,  Senator  Spooner,  and  Mr. 
Hadley,  vice-president  of  the  Eau  Claire,  Wis.,  Na- 
tional Bank,  purchased  a  few  months  since  800  acres  of 
]and  adjoining  this  property  at  a  large  price,  and 
have  already  commenced  work  upon  it. 

The  climate  in  this  location  is  isothermal  and  ver 
healthy,  and  work  can  be  carried  on  successfully  for 
nearly  all  the  year  round. 

Samples  of  the  gravel  and  map  of  the  property  can 
be  seen  by  applying  to  the  undersigned, 

CHARLES  J.  HARTMANN 


The  Stock  Very  Valuable.— The  stock  of  the  Company,  owing  to  rapid 
sales,  the  increase  in  value  of  the  claims  reserved  by  the  Company,  the  influx  of  thous- 
ands of  miners  and  others  to  this  country,  each  contributing  a  percentage  of  profits  to 
the  revenues  of  the  Company,  will  make  our  stock  a  magnificent  investment.  Stock 
bought  at  $10  now  may  in  five  years'  time  be  worth  from  $500  to  $5,000.  So  excellent  is 
the  showing  thus  far  made  that  it  will  not  be  very  long  before  not  a  single  share  of  stock 
can  be  had. 

Bright  Prospects  of  the  Company.— Mining  in  this  region  has  heretofore 
lacked  both  capital  and  system,  and  yet  with  even  the  crudest  tools  and  most  haphazard 
methods  millions  have  been  found.  What  then  will  be  the  result  under  proper  work- 
ing and  abundance  of  capital?  Take  the  following  example  as  an  illustration,  and  it  is 
not  a  solitary  one  by  any  means- 


PATIJfG  JIINESt 

The  Salt  Lake  Tribune  furnishes  the  following  in- 
teresting figures  relating  to  the  Ontario  mine  in  Utah:. 

"  Suppose  a  man  had  bought  1,000  shares  of  Ontario 
stock  fourteen  years  ago,  when  he  might  have  done 
so  for  $20,000.  There  have  been  paid  on  the  stock  177 
dividends  of  50  cents  per  share  in  the  fourteen  years, 
equivalent  to  $88.50  per  share,  or  $88,500  on  1,000 
shares.  Suppose  he  now  sells  the  stock,  as  he  can  do, 
for  $42,500,  put  the  principal  of  the  investment  in  his 
pocket,  and  add  the  remaining  proceeds  of  the  sale, 
namely,  $22,500,  to  the  dividends.  He  would  have  as 
the  profits  of  the  transaction,  $109,000.  If  he  put  out 
his  gains  annually  at  7  per  cent,  interest,  he  would 
have  received  in  interest  $13,255;  total  profits,  $122,255, 
or  $8,732  a  year  ;  about  45  per  cent,  a  year.  But  if  he 
had  not  put  the  money  at  interest  he  would  have 
realized  nearly  40  per  cent,  per  annum  on  his  invest- 
ment. 

"  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  Ontario  Stock  is  bet- 
ter than  Government  Bonds  as  an  investment.  The 
dividends  are  paid  with  equal  regularity,  and  are 
ten  times  larger. 

"  Anent  this  excellent  showing  of  the  Ontario  is 
a  refreshing  incident  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Copper  Queen.  Gen.  John  A.  Wiley  bought  that  mine 
soon  after  it  was  located,  for  $8,000— one  quarter  for 
himself  and  the  other  three  quarters  for  friends  ;  but 
through  the  negligence  of  the  man  to  whom  he  in- 
trusted the  details  of  purchase  and  payment  of  the 
money  he  lost  the  mine,  as  an  agent  of  Flood  & 
Mackay  stepped  in  and  gave  the  poor  prospector  a 
cool  $100,000  and  the  retention  of  a  one-eighth  inter- 


est tor  his  claim,  andLentered  into  an  agreement  with 
the  millionaire  to  work  the  mine  on  a  certain  percent- 
age. The  company  was  stocked  for  $12,000,000.  So, 
you  see,  the  General's  one  fourth  interest  would  have 
stood  him  $3,000,000.  The  Copper  Queen  is  still  a 
great  mine,  while  it  is  said  that  the  agent  who  took 
the  contract  of  working  the  same  has  pulled  out  as 
high  as  $60,000  in  one  month  for  his  percentage. 

"  A  volume  could  be  filled  with  such  cases  as  these, 
but  the  two  will  serve  as  illustrations  of  what  is  going 
on  in  the  mining  camps  of  the  West.  It  may  not  be 
inappropriate,  however,  to  refer  the  reader  to  a  just 
issued  report  of  the  director  of  the  Mint  on  the  pro- 
duction of  the  precious  metal  for  the  calendar  year 
1890.  According  to  that  authority,  the  gold  product 
of  the  United  States  was  1,588,880  fine  ounces  of  the 
value  of  $32,845,000,  an  increase  of  $45,000  over  the 
product  of  the  preceding  year.  The  silver  product 
of  the  mines  approximated  64,000,000  oimces,  corre- 
sponding at  the  average  price  of  silver  during  the 
year  to  $57,225,000,  and  at  the  coining  value  of  silver 
to  $70,574,945.  This  is  an  increase  of  4,500,000  fine 
ounces  in  the  silver  product  of  the  country  as  com- 
pared with  last  year.  The  coinage  executed  during 
the  last  calendar  year  was  the  largest  in  the  history 
of  the  mint  service,  aggregating  124,025,365  pieces,  of 
the  value  of  $160,054,883.84,  of  which  120,467,132  were 
gold  and  138,043,005  silver  dollars." 

Not  only  gold  and  precious  stones,  but 
other  very  valuable  minerals  are  to  be  found  here, 
and  are  susceptible  of  the  most  thorough  develop- 
ment. Corundum,  kaoline,  plantinum,*lead,  silver, 
and,  above  all,  mica,  the  yield  of  which  is  nowj3om- 
1  paratively  scarce. 


How  to  Work  the  River  Bed.— In  order  to  work  the  bed  of  the  Uwharrie, 
amongst  the  sand  and  gravel  of  which  millions  in  gold  lie  hidden,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
construct  pile  dams,  carry  water  from  the  present  channel  by  sluice-ways  and  canal, 
and  pumping  it  dry,  we  have  the  rich  gravel  ready  to  wash  and  extract  the  gold.  In 
some  places  the  use  will  be  necessary  of  both  steam  pumps  and  steam  dredges  on  shallow 
log  rafts.  (See  illustration  next  page.)  This  will  take  time,  skilled  labor  and  capital,  but 
when  once  completed  the  results  will  be  immensely  valuable.  It  is  in  this  vast  bonanza 
that  we  are  asking  your  aid,  assistance  and  cooperation.  It  means  wealth  for  us  and 
wealth  for  you.  As  to  what  the  resulting  wealth  is  liable  to  be,  read  the  following  ex- 
tracts ;  they  are  not  fairy-tales,  fancies  or  theories,  but  actual  facts,  already  clearly  demon- 
strated, for  the  work  described  has  been  done  and  the  results  have  been  obtained. 


Turning1  a  Big  Sliver  from  its  Course  to 
Find  Gold  —  A  Great  Work  of  River 
Engineering— The  Enterprise  Reward- 
ed by  Rich  Finds  at  Bed  Rock— Specu- 
lators Picking  up  Mines  in  the  Black 
Hills — A  Good  Deal  of  Prospecting^in 
New'  Idaho  Districts. 

San  Francisco,  September  27.— Success  seems  at 
last  to  have  crowned  one  of  the  most  gigantic  min- 
ing enterprises  ever  undertaken  in  California.  Dis- 
patches from  Oroville  say  that  the  men  at  work  in 
the  Golden  Gate  and  Golden  Feather  Mines  in  the 


bed  of  the  Feather  River  in  Butte  County,  which 
has  been  diverted  from  its  course  after  many  unsuc- 
cessful attempts  to  dam  it,  are  now  making  enormous 
clean-ups.  The  gravel  is  literally  sprinkled  with 
gold.  A  large  force  of  men  are  employed  in  moving 
the  enormous  beds  of  gravel  and  cleaning  the  bed 
rock  of  its  gold.  The  exact  amount  that  is  being 
taken  from  the  river  bed  is  not  made  known  to  the 
public.  It  is  the  general  belief,  based  \ipon  well- 
known  facts,  that  immense  quantities  of  gold  are 
being  taken  out.  As  usual  in  such  cases,  the  man- 
agement prefers  to  keep  the  actual  results  secret. 
The  mines  are  kept  dry  by  enormous  pumps,  and 


DREDGING  FOR  GOLD  GRAVEL  ON  RAFTS. 


MAJOR  FRANK  MCLAUGHLIN. 


elevators  are  kept  running,  while  both  day  and 
night  shifts  are  busy  at  work.  The  effect  is  striking 
at  night  when  viewing  the  long  line  of  electric 
lights,  where  but  a  few  weeks  ago  a  great  river  was 
flowing;  by  these  lights  the  miners  are  enabled  to 
do  as  much  work  during  the  night  as  during  the  day. 

The  Feather  River  has  the  richest  gold-bearing 
channel  known  in  mining  history  in  the  early  days 
of  California.  Oroville  on  its  bank  became  the  third 
town  in  California  during  the  early  gold-mining 
period.  Its  early  output  for  years  added  many  mil- 
lions to  the  circulating  medium  of  the  world.  Where 
the  river  could  be  turned  vast  treasures  were  ob- 
tained. In  its  bed  were  the  famous  Sailor  Cape, 
Whiterock  and  Union  Cape  mines.  From  Cape  mine 
in  a  single  day  $36,000  was  taken,  and  one  bank  of 
auriferous  gravel  yielded  $936.  Owing  to  the  lack  of 
organized  capital,  engineering  skill,  and  the  enor- 
mous difficulties  to  be  encountered,  some  of  the 

chest  portions  of  the  Feather  River  were  left  un- 


touched. This  was  the  case  with  that  strip  now 
known  as  the  Golden  Gate  mine. 

The  attention  of  Major  Frank  McLaughlin  was 
called  to  this  rich  river  bed.  He  became  interested, 
and  prepared  maps,  plans,  specifications  and  draw- 
ings of  the  river,  and  with  these  went  to  England, 
where  two  companies  were  by  his  efforts  organized. 
Major  McLaughlin  was  made  resident  manager  of 
both  mines,  and  for  the  past  two  years  an  immense 
amount  of  preparatory  work  has  been  done.  The 
portion  of  Feather  River  sought  to  be  worked  was  in 
a  narrow  canyon.  To  reach  it  roads  had  to  be  con- 
structed at  large  expense,  buildings  erected,  and 
tools  and  machinery  provided.  A  flume  sixty  feet 
wide  and  three  thousand  two  hundred  feet  long  was 
completed  and  the  pumps  were  quickly  rigged,  but 
before  the  channel  could  be  drained  of  its  seepage 
water  early  and  severe  rains  set  in,  the  river  became 
a  raging  torrent,  and  the  dam  crumbled  to  pieces  in 
the  flood,  the  flume  washed  away,  and  the  whole 
labor  for  the  season  was  irretrievably  lost. 

The  company,  nothing  daunted,  set  to  work  the 
following  spring  and  a  second  dam  was  built,  and 
every  precaution  was  taken  to  make  it  stand  during 
the  winter.  The  estimated  cost  of  this  work  was  over 
$1,200,000.  Everything  now  being  shipshape,  there 
is  nothing  to  prevent  the  speedy  consummation  of 
the  great  enterprise.— From  N.  Y.  Sun,  Sept.  28, 1890. 


SIX  HUNDRED  THOUSAND  DOLLARS 
IN  FORTY-TWO  DAYS. 

From  Lock  on  Practical  Gold  Mining, 
London,  1889,  p.  203. 

«  Essleston  describes  a  plan  adopted  on 
the  Feather  River  in  Butte  County,  Cali- 
fornia, on  the  Cape  claims.  'Two  wing* 
dams  were  constructed  across  the  river; 
all  the  water  across  the  first  dam  was 
carried  by  a  large  flume  to  the  lower  one, 
and  the  water  between  the  two  dams  was 
pumped  out  by  wheels  run  by  the  cur- 
rent in  the  flume.  The  gravel  on  the 
river  bed  was  washed  in  sluices,  and 
during  forty-two  days  yielded  $680,000. 
Only  one  third  the  ground  had  then  been 
washed  out.9  »* 


4 


METHOD  OF  DRYING  UP  BED  OF  A  RICH  GOLD  STREAM  BY  SLUICING  AND  PUMPING. 


Very  Rich  Gravel. — The  sand  and  gravel  in  the  bed  of  our  twenty  miles  of 
river  runs  from  two  dollars  to  three  hundred  dollars  per  cubic  yard.  It  has  been  clearly 
demonstrated  again  and  again  that  gravel  yielding  only  twenty  cents  per  cubic  yard  can 
be  worked  at  a  profit.  (See  "  Practical  Treatise  on  Hydraulic  Mining,"  by  Aug.  T.  Bowie, 
Jr.,  Mining  Engineer,  New  York,  1889,  and  Flock,  "Practical  Gold  Mining,"  London, 
1890.)  Imagine,  then,  the  immense  wealth  to  be  had  by  gravel  running  from  ten  dollars 
to  one  thousand  dollars  per  cubic  yard,  as  does  that  from  the  bed  of  our  river. 

A  Veritable  Bonanza. — We  have  here  a  mammoth  bonanza,  and  we  invite 
you  to  share  in  it.  Do  not  delay  too  long  if  you  want  to  buy  stock  at  its  present 
price,  for  there  will  be  a  hundred  applicants  for  every  share  that  will  be  sold. 

Pearls  Found. — Incidentally  we  might  mention  that  pearls  have  been  found 
in  the  bed  of  this  river,  and  a  plant  to  work  them,  if  further  investigation  proves  that 
they  are  abundant,  may  prove  another  source  of  large  profit. 

Results  of  Present  Work. — Reports  received  from  our  superintendent  and 
force  of  men  are  of  the  most  favorable  character.  Samples  of  gold  scales  and  dust,  pearls 
and  gold  concentrates  sent  forward  by  him  may  be  seen  at  our  offices.  Our  own  work, 
report  of  assays,  etc.,  simply  serve  to  confirm  the  reports  of  experts  who  visited  the 
ground  before  the  property  was  purchased. 

The  River  a  Receptacle  for  Gold.— By  consulting  the  map  in  the  front 
of  this  book  you  will  see  how  the  Uwharrie  River  drains  the  richest  gold  district  of  the 
State ;  how  it  is  daily  becoming  richer  by  tailings  from  the  other  mines  above  and  on 
its  tributaries,  by  the  decay  of  the  rock's  above,  by  frost,  thawing,  freezing,  rain,  and 
tides,  which  constantly  bring  gold  down  from  the  placers  and  veins  on  the  mountain 
sides,  for  the  river  is  practically  shut  in  by  mountains.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
about  twenty  per  cent,  of  gold  escapes  from  all  mines  in  their  process  of  stamping,  crush- 


5 


Gem  milling  in  this  section  is  still  in  its  infancy, 
but  growing  steadily,  and  many  new  discoveries  are 
being  made.  The  finding  of  a  real  diamond  at  D5>  sart- 
ville,  McDowell  county,  in  1886,  and  the  large  quan- 
tities of  aqua-marine  lately  found  near  Little  River 
church,  Alexander  county*  was  a  surprise  to  the  most 
sanguine.  This  should  clear  away  any  lingering 
doubts  in  the  minds  of  some  as  to  the  existence  of 
valuable  gems  in  North  America.— From  the  States- 
ville  Landmark. 


ing,  washing,  etc-,  and  flows  away  with  the  water  to  settle  and  be  deposited  in  the  sand 
and  bed  of  the  river  below.  Thus,  if  a  mine  works  one  million  dollars  in  gold  in  a  year 
they  lose  one  fifth  of  it  in  the  water  they  use,  or  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  There 
are  some  fifteen  or  twenty  mines  on  the  Uwharrie  or  its  small  tributary  streams,  the  fine 
gold  from  which  is  constantly  washed  down  and  settling  in  the  bed  of  our  river. 

Besides  this  the  land  is  rich.  Cotton,  corn,  sweet  potatoes,  melons,  grapes,  peaches, 
and  other  crops  are  abundant ;  rich  beds  of  marble  are  found,  beautiful  timber,  includ- 
ing mahogany,  and  some  of  the  best  and  easiest  mined  building  and  paving  stones. 

Truly,  Nature  has  spread  wealth  of  every  kind,  mineral  and  vegetable,  besides 
health  and  strength  for  weary  minds,  tired  bodies,  and  sore  and  aching  lungs,  with  the 
most  bountiful  hand. 

Here  is  a  chance  for  both  fortune  and  health,  and  he  who  delays  misses  the  chance 
of  a  lifetime.  Such  a  chance  may  never  occur  again,  and  our  offer,  which  is  so  liberal, 
is  being  responded  to  with  the  utmost  activity,  and  will  not  long  remain  open. 

Immense  Possibilities  of  this  Property.— Remember  the  value  of  these 
gold  and  gem  fields  is  but  just  becoming  known,  and  there  are  immense  possibilities  for 
both  actual  work  and  speculation.  On  some  of  our  Free  Claims  gold  and  valuable  gems 
both  have  and  will  be  found,  and  everywhere  gold  is  to  be  seen  and  worked.  In  this  con- 
nection let  us  quote  from  Dr.  J.  B.  Stephenson,  of  Statesville,  an  authority  on  gems,  etc. : 

Although  many  years  of  my  life  have  been  spent  in 
collecting  this  section,  I  am  unable  to  estimate  what 
future  and  more  thorough  examination  may  develop. 
Where  the  surface  "finds"  have  been  so  rich  and 
interesting,  no  one  would  venture  to  predict  what 
underground  work,  might  develop.  There  is  a  vast 
territory  yet  unexplored.  The  many  difficulties 
which  formerly  confronted  the  explorer  have  been 
in  a  great  mea'sure  overcome,  and  to-day  he  would 
find  it  a  pleasant  pastime,  with  every  chance  of  mak- 
ing his  work  profitable. 

Corrobative  Proof. — Regarding  the  value  of  our  properties,  or  the  truth  of 
any  of  the  statements  made  herein,  write,  with  stamp,  to  any  of  the  following  gentlemen: 

W.  H.  Roberts,  of  W.  H.  Roberts  &  Co.,  Bankers  Marion,  N.  C. 

Hon.  Jos.  Morris,  Mayor  of  Marion,  N.  C. 

John  J.  Stevens,  Real  Estate  Marion,  N.  C. 

A.  B.  Price,  Esq.,  County  Clerk  Marion,  N.  C. 

Editor  ''Salisbury  Watchman"  Salisbury,  N.  C. 

Chas.  G.  Viele. . . . .  Salisbury,  N.  C. 

Wm  Carter,   Nails,  N.  C. 

Nelson  Russell   Nails,  N.  C. 

James  Cotton  Nails,  N.  C. 

J.  E.  Saunders,  Sheriff  of  Montgomery  Co.,  N.  C. 

J.  P.  Harper  Troy,  N.  C. 

John  P.  Beaman  Troy,  N.  C. 

L.  M.  Russell,  Treasurer  of  Eldorado  Co  Eldorado',  N.  C. 

Jesse  Morris  and  W.  W.  Davis  ,  Eldorado,  N.  C. 

W.  G.  Smith,  Road  Com.  and  Justice  of  the  Peace. .  Eldorado,  N.  C. 

E.  F.  David  and  W.  H.  Mitchell  Eldorado,  N.  C. 

Marion  Banking  and  Industrial  Co  of  Marion,  N.  C. 

These  gentlemen  are  directly  on  the  ground  and  know  what  has  been  and  what  is 
toeing  done,  and  many  of  them  are  purchasers  of  our  stock. 

If  residents  of  the  district  who  know  all  the  facts  regarding  the  vast  riches  on  our 
properties  purchase  stock  in  our  Company  it  is  a  pretty  fair  indication  of  its  value  and 
future  prospects.  We  state  these  facts  and  make  these  references  in  order  to  satisfy  any 
inquirer  that  there  is  nothing  of  the  "wild-cat  scheme"  order  about  our  offer  of  stock  to 
the  public.  We  need  large  capital  to  properly  work  and  develop  our  mines,  and  the 
public  is  cheerfully  subscribing  it,  but  every  shareholder  will  benefit  a  hundred  fold  by 
every  dollar  he  invests. 

Incidentally  we  would  say  that  every  mail  brings  us  orders  for  stock  from  persons 
residing  in  Montana,  Idaho,  Colorado,  California,  and  Wyoming,  who,  being  well  versed 
in  mining  matters,  and  knowing  of  the  fortunes  already  made  in  even  less  promising 
fields,  are  prompt  and  heavy  investors  in  our  stock. 


6 


If,  as  our  mining  experts  report,  there  are  sixteen  million  dollars  in  gold  in  the 
first  seven  miles  of  the  Uwharrie  River,  then,  indeed,  we  have  a  fortune  fit  for  kings  at 
our  very  hands,  and  you  can  share  it  with  us. 


Sworn  Opinions  as  to  the  Eichness  of  our  Properties. 

W.  Henry  Roberts,  Wm.  McD.  Burgin,  John  J.  Stevens,  G.  G.  Neal, 

President.  1st  Vice-President.  Secretary.  Treasurer. 


MARION  BANKING  AND  INDUSTRIAL  CO. 


CAPITAL,  $1,500,000.00. 

Marion,  N.  C,  Oct.  17, 1891. 
North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bullion  Co.,  17  Wall  Street,  New  York  City: 

Gentlemen:  The  property  just  purchased  hy  you,  known  as  the  "Cooper,"  Taylor  or  Butler  tract,  is  a 
piece  of  well-known  gold  property,  lying  on  South  Muddy  Creek — that  famous  gold  bearing  "  district " — 
and  in  securing  this  piece  of  property  you  have  a  "good  thing."  Gold  has  been  found,  and  is  still  being 
found  and  worked  by  natives  in  a  crude  way.  Yours  very  truly,  W.  HENRY  ROBERTS. 

FROM  SHERIFF  OF  THE  COUNTY. 

Troy,  Montgomery  Co.,  N.  C,  Oct.  15, 1891. 
North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bullion  Co.,  New  York  City: 

Dear  Sirs:  I  understand  that  you  have  bought  the  bed  of  the  Uwharrie  river,  in  this  county,  and  pro- 
pose to  work  it.  Please  send  me  your  prospectus,  if  your  company  is  an  open  one.  I  have  lived  in  the 
Uwharrie  river  district  for  fifteen  years,  and  during  that  time  have  bought  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of 
gold  that  I  know  came  from  close  to  the  river.  During  my  term  of  office  as  Sheriff  of  Montgomery  County, 
I  have  often  had  people  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  river  pay  me  their  state,  county  and  school  tax  in  gold 
dust.   I  have  faith  in  your  enterprise,  and  may  take  some  stock. 

J.  E.  SAUNDERS,  ex-Sheriff  Montgomery  County. 

FROM  AN  OLD  MINER. 

I  hereby  testify  that  from  many  years'  experience  as  a  practical  miner  that  I  believe  the  bed  of  the 
Uwharrie  river  to  be  rich  in  gold,  and  that  when  it  is  worked  many  places  will  be  found  that  will  be  worth 
hundreds  of  dollars  per  cubic  yard.  His 

J.  P.  X  HARPER. 
Mark. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me,  this  the  16th  day  of  October,  1891. 

W.  G.  SMITH,  Justice  of  the  Peace.  [Seal.l 

FROM  A  PROMINENT  RESIDENT  OF  THE  DISTRICT. 

Troy,  Montgomery  County,  N.  C,  October  17, 1891. 
North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bullion  Co.,  New  York  City: 

Dear  Sirs:  Inclosed  please  find $100.00  for  which  please  send  me  ten  shares  of  the  stock  of  the  North 
Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bullion  Co.  I  know  nothing  of  your  property  in  McDowell  County,  but  I  do- 
know  something  about  the  Uwharrie  river,  in  this  county,  and  believe  you  have  a  bonanza.  I  know  posi- 
tively that  there  has  been  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  gold  taken  out  from  tne  neighbor- 
hood of  your  property,  and  I  am  satisfied  you  have  the  cream  of  this  whole  district.  Please  send  the  stock 
at  once,  and  oblige,  Respectfully,  JOHN  A.  BEAMAN. 

FROM  THE  COUNTY  TREASURER. 

Eldorado  P.  O.,  Montgomery  County,  N.  C,  1891. 
North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bullion  Co.,  New  York: 

Dear  Sirs  : — I  have  received  your  letter  of  inquiry  asking  for  a  "  candid  expression  "  of  my  opinion  of 
the  Uwharrie  river  section  in  general  and  the  bed  of  the  Uwharrie  river  in  particular,  from  a  gold  produc- 
ing standpoint.  I  take  pleasure  in  replying  that  from  a  personal  knowledge  gained  by  thirty-four  years' 
residence  in  the  district,  and  some  practical  experience  in  the  management  of  these  mines,  that  I  have  no 
hesitancy  in  saying  that  this  is  the  "Eldorado"  (land  of  gold)  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  of  the  whole 
southern  states.  The  only  means  I  have  of  judging  of  the  richness  of  the  bed  of  the  Uwharrie  river  is 
from  the  natural  lay  of  the  country.  It  is  paralleled  on  each  side  for  many  miles  by  hills  whose  slopes  ad- 
jacent to  it  are  all  gold  producing,  and  it  would  be  strange  that  if  in  the  washing  down  of  these  slopes  for 
centuries  a  large  anaount  of  gold  had  not  been  deposited  in  its  bed.  I  have  often  heard  the  old  miners 
here,  who  I  consider  good  judges  of  the  country  in  which  they  have  worked  all  their  lives,  express  a 
wish  that  they  had  the  capital  and  could  work  the  bed  of  the  river. 

Respectfully,  L..M.  RUSSELL,  ex-Treas.  of  Montgomery  County. 

FROM  A  PRACTICAL  MINER. 

This  is  to  certify  that  I  am  a  practical  miner,  having  worked  in  the  Uwharrie  river  neighborhood  for 
gold  twenty-five  years.  I  think  myself  capable  of  judging,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  I  believe  the  bed 
of  the  Uwharrie  river  to  be  rich  in  gold.  His 

JESS  jxj  MORRIS. 
Mark. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me,  this  the  16th  day  of  October,  1891. 

W.  G.  SMITH,  J.  P.  [Seal.] 


7 


OPINIONS  OF  EXPERTS 

AS  TO  THE  VALUE  OF  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLD  FIELDS. 


The  discoveries  of  Gold  and  precious 
stones  in  western  North  Carolina  amongst 
the  mountains,  in  the  valleys  and  the  small 
streams  that  traverse  them  would  seem 
almost  like  tales  from  fairyland  were  they 
not  attested  by  thousands  of  inhabitants, 
newspapers  that  have  sent  their  reporters 
there,  competent  mining  engineers,  geolo- 
gists and  scientists.  Also,  and  perhaps  even 
more  convincing,  are  the  cold,  unvarnished 
facts  that  the  ignorant  and  half-wild  mount- 
aineers do  their  trading  with  the  country 
stores  in  virgin  gold  in  nuggets  and  dust ; 
that  large  jewelry  firms,  such  as  Tiffany  & 
Company,  have  purchased  diamonds  found 
in  this  region,  and  that  large  nuggets  and 
valuable  deposits  are  almost  weekly  being 
discovered. 

Should  there  still  be  any  doubt  in  any 
one's  mind  as  to  the  richness  of  these  new 
gold  fields  reference  to  the  last  official  re- 
port of  the  State  Geologist  of  North  Carolina 
will  forever  set  them  at  rest.  But  even 
better  than  this  is  the  fact  that  a  trip  to 
these  fields  will  soon  convince  any  unbe- 
liever of  the  facts  we  claim. 

The  North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and 
Bullion  Company  was  organized  and  incor- 
porated for  the  purchase  and  development 
of  the  vast  mineral  wealth  of  this  region, 
and  it  promises  to  be  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful companies  that  the  history  of  gold 
mining  has  ever  known. 

The  Company  owns  and  controls  land  in 
McDowell  County  on  Muddy  Creek,  and  in 
Muddy  Creek  Valley,  from  which  with  even 
the  crudest  and  most  primitive  methods  of 
mining,  over  eleven  million  dollars  in  gold 
has  already  been  taken,  and  where  there 
are  now  in  successful  operation  twenty-two 
large  mines,  with  stamps,  drills,  crushers, 
amalgamators,  etc.,  running  day  and  night, 
and  controlled,  several  of  them,  by  English 
capital. 

The  Company  also  owns  a  magnificent 
property  in  Davidson,  Montgomery  and 
Randolph  Counties,  viz. :  A  State  'Grant 
(from  Governor  and  State  of  North  Caro- 
lina) of  twenty  miles  of  the  bed  and  shores 
of  the  Uwharrie  River,  from  its  source  to 
its  adit  into  the  Yadkin  River.  On  small 
streams  emptying  into  the  Uwharrie  are 
located  seventeen  gold  mines  in  active 
operation,  some  running  day  and  night  and 
paying  handsome  dividends.  This  most 
valuable  property  was  purchased  by  the 
Company  under  a  guarantee  that  every 
cubic  yard  of  sand  and  gravel  in  its  bed, 


etc.,  would,  with  ordinary  placer  mining 
(pan  and  shovel)  produce  from  one  dollar 
to  five  dollars  in  virgin  gold.  Besides  this 
every  rain  and  every  flood  brings  down 
more  gold  from  the  mountains  to  enrich  its 
gravel,  and  the  mines  on  the  small  tributary 
streams  are  constantly  washing  down  "tail- 
ings "  containing  wasted  gold  worth  thous- 
ands of  dollars.  (See  accompanving  map.) 
Of  this  property  Prof.  CHARLES  G. 
MANN,  of  Highpoint,  North  Carolina,  pro- 
bably the  most  capable,  conservative  and 
careful  mining  engineer  in  the  State,  writes 
in  his  report  on  the  Hodge  Tract :  "  Another 
New  York  party  has  acquired  valuable  min- 
ing ground  close  by  in  McDowell  County 
and  18  miles  of  sluicing  ground  on  the  banks 
of  the  Uwharrie  River,  in  Randolph  County, 
where  I  once  sluiced  out  one  ounce  of  fine 
gold  (950)  in  eight  hours'  time.  AVith  great 
pleasure  I  see  North  Carolina  coming  to  the 
front  with  capital  and  improved  means  to  do 
justice  to  her  immense  mineral  treasures." 

To  resume  briefly  regarding  McDowell 
County  in  which  part  of  our  land  is  located  : 


SOME  PERTINENT  FACTS. 

There  are  twenty-two  Gold  Mines  in 
this  County,  the  ore  from  which  assays 
from  $50  to  $180  pure  gold. 

Two  of  these  mines  alone  have  yielded 
FIVE  AND  ONE-HALF  MILLIONS 
DOLLARS  IN  GOLD  (Russell  and  Copp  s 
Hill). 

There  are  eighteen  known  existing 
Diamonds  found  recently  in  Muddy 
Creek  Valley  alone.  The  largest  {5)4 
carats^  is  owned  by  Col.  Henry  C.  Dem- 
ing,  of  Harrisburg.  He  has  a  collection 
of  miscellaneous  gems  picked  up  in  same 
county,  worth  several  thousand  dollars. 

Garnets  are  found  in  large  quantities. 
A  rare  form  of  Granite,  for  building  stone, 
striped  like  a  leopard's  skin  and  called 
"  leopardite,"  is  also  found  there. 

Prof.  Albert  Free  found,  near  Rattle- 
snake Den,  within  a  radius  of  one  hun- 
dred feet,  seven  of  the  rarest  gems. 

A  man  named  Smalley  iwho  owned 
the  land)  and  three  others  took  FORTY 
THOUSAND  DOLLARS  in  gold  from  the 
edge  of  a  swamp  in  30  days'  time. 

Precious  Stones  have  repeatedly  been 
found  in  the  crops  of  chickens  and  tur- 
keys. 

The  following  gems  and  metals  have 
already  been  found  in  this  County : 


8 


"Diamonds,  Rubies,  Garnets,  Sapphires, 
Beryl,  Moonstone,  Jasper,  Zincorn,  Sil- 
ver, Copper,  Gold,  Platinum,  Lead,  Iron, 
Mica,  and  Kaolin,  besides  56  other  va- 
rieties of  rare  minerals  and  gems. 

Most  of  these  valuable  deposits  are 
upon  the  surface  or  near  it,  so  that  ex- 
pensive tools,  machinery,  etc.,  will  not 
be  needed  except  in  special  instances. 


Salisbury,  N.  C,  Aug.  10,  '91. 
To  the  North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bul- 
lion Co.,  New  York  City. 

Dear  Sirs  :  In  reply  to  yours  of  the  7th 
I  would  state:  The  Uwharrie  district  com- 
prises a  belt  from  one  to  three  miles  in 
width,  lying  on  each  side  of  the  Uwharrie 
Eiver  and  on  the  slopes  of  the  Uwharrie 
Mountains,  in  Montgomery  and  Randolph 
Counties,  and  extending  twenty  miles  north- 
ward from  the  mouth  of  that  river. 

Mining  was  carried  on  here  on  a  vigorous 
scale  as  early  as  1825,  and  has  been  carried 
on  without  interruption,  in  a  crude  way, 
ever  since. 

There  is  no  way  of  estimating  the  amount 
of  gold  taken  from  the  district,  as  most  of  it 
has  been  done  by  a  mixed  lot  of  tributers 
and  no  account  ever  been  kept,  but  that  an 
immense  amount  has  been  taken  out  is  evi- 
dent from  the  work  that  has  been  done. 

The  bed  of  every  creek  and  branch  in  the 
lower  half  of  this  district,  and  most  of  the 
hollows,  have  been  worked  out  thoroughly, 
and  after  standing  for  a  few  years  they  were, 
in  some  cases,  worked  again,  and  this  con- 
tinued for  a  half  dozen  times,  each  time  the 
parties  finding  that  it  paid  them  well.  This 
is  accounted  for  from  the  fact  that  it  being 
a  mountainous  country  the  rains  are  con- 
stantly washing  the  surface  dirt  into  the 
streams,  and  the  gold  being  disseminated 
through  it  by  the  breaking  down  of  veins, 
is  deposited  in  the  beds  of  the  streams,  mak- 
ing them  in  some  cases  extremely  rich. 


_  Of  late  years  a  great  many  deposits  on  the 
sides  of  hills  have  been  discovered  and 
worked  and  the  returns  of  some  of  them  are 
most  fabulous.  For  instance :  The  Sanders' 
find,  where,  with  nothing  but  the  shovel, 
pan  and  rocker,  a  half  bushel  of  gold  was 
taken  out  in  a  month's  time  by  the  native 
miners.  Another  instance,  more  recent,  was 
of  two  parties  taking  out  a  peck  of  gold  in 
a  week's  time,  working  only  a  few  hours 
at  night. 

The  gold  is  so  widely  disseminated 
throughout  this  district  that  almost  any  of 
the  land  owners  will  tell  you  that  if  you 
can  find  a  panful  of  dirt  anywhere  on 
their  land  that  does  not  show  gold  they 
will  give  you  fifty  acres.  Senator  Hearst, 
one  of  the  most  successful  mining  men  of 
the  country,  visited  the  district  only  a  few 
months  before  his  death,  and  was  so  well 
pleased  that  he  bought  a  large  territory, 
intending  to  go  into  hydraulicing  on  an 
extensive  scale. 

The  gold  is  mostly  coarse,  a  great  many 
pieces  having  been  found  weighing  over 
a  pound. 

In  the  upper  part  of  this  district  the  gold 
is  found  in  place,  generally  in  siliceous 
schists,  and  a  number  of  English  companies, 
quick  to  take  hold  of  anything  good,  are 
now  operating  stamp  mills,  130  stamps  hav- 
ing been  erected  in  the  past  few  years  with- 
in one  mile  of  the  river. 

Respectfully, 

G.  G.  VlELE. 

I  send  by  this  mail  a  copy  ot  "Ores  of 
North  Carolina,"  the  latest  geological  work 
we  have.  I  have  marked  paragraphs  on 
pages  248,  325  and  327,  and  ask  you  to  look 
at  the  large  map  in  it.  See  map  accompany- 
ing this  book.  You  will  see  by  the  note  on 
map  that  A  means  gold  mines,  and  if  you 
will  look  at  the  Uwharrie  River  (marked 
around  with  leadpencil)  you  will  see  what 
a  number  they  have  placed  near  it. 


Sources  from  Whicti  to  Drtiw  Profits. 

First. — The  working  of  valuable  ore  and  gem  deposits,  pockets  and  placers  on  the 
Company's  property. 

Second. — Apercentage  of  the  gross  value  of  all  valuable  discoveries  made  by  workers 
of  Free  Claims. 

Third.— The  turning  of  the  Uwharrie  River  from  its  bed  and  exposing  and  gathering 
the  millions  in  gold  now  there. 

Fourth.— The  erection  and  operation  of  quartz  crushers,  electric  drills,  and  separators, 
furnaces,  forges,  houses,  stores,  etc.,  etc.,  on  its  property. 

Fifth.— The  percentage  paid  by  claim-holders  for  assaying,  smelting,  separating,  refin- 
ing, and  marketing  gold  and  jewels  mined  on  claims. 

Sixth.— The  sale  or  working  of  tenth  claims  reserved  by  the  Company,  and  which  will 
become  more  and  more  valuable  with  each  discovery  of  ore,  nuggets,  or  jewels,  by 
adjoining  claim-holders. 

Seventh.— Profits  from  co-operative  store  for  sale  of  food,  clothing,  mining  tools,  aiad 
utensils,  etc.,  etc. 


9 


PECULIAR  ADVANTAGES. 

The  stock  of  the  Company  should  not 
only  earn  gratifying  dividends,  but  ought 
to  increase  rapidly  in  market  value  with 
the  working  of  FREE  CLAIMS,  new  dis- 
coveries, and  the  development  of  the  Com- 
pany's properties. 

Besides  this,  the  occupant  of  any  Min- 
ing Right  or  Claim  (a  Plat  of  valuable 
Mineral  Land),  which  each  Stockholder 
may  acquire,  stands  the  chance  of  dis- 
covering on  his  Right  or  Claim  a  fortune 
of  from  Five  Hundred  Dollars  to  One 
Hundred  Thousand  Dollars,  a  percent- 
age of  ten  per  cent,  going  to  the  Com- 
pany. 

Free  Mining  Claims. —  Any  pur- 
chaser of  stock  acquires  the  privilege  or 
right  of  occupancy  of  a  Free  Mining  Claim, 

to  be  selected  by  such  purchaser,  or  his  or 
her  legal  representative.  The  claim  may 
be  acquired  absolutely  FREE,  there  being 
no  charge  for  it  or  its  lease  in  any  way  or 
shape. 

The  holder  of  a  mining  claim  may 
work  it  himself  or  employ  others  to 
work  it  for  him,  or  simply  hold  it  for 
speculation. 

Each  shareholder  whose  claim  yields 
over  five  hundred  dollars  in  gold  or 
gems  must  bind  himself  or  herself  to 
pay  to  the  company  ten  per  cent,  of  its 
value  for  the  benefit  of  general  share- 
holders. 

Thus,  if  John  Jones  or  Richard  Roe,  for 
example,  find  a  gold  nugget  or  gem  on  their 
claim  worth  two  thousand  dollars,  they 
must,  as  soon  as  sold,  pay  the  company  ten 
per  cent,  of  its  gross  value,  or  two  hundred 
dollars,  which  money  will  be  credited  to 
the  earnings  of  the  Company. 

The  company  owns  nearly  twenty  miles 
of  this  valuable  property,  and  it  is  estimat- 
ed by  experts  that  five  miles  of  it  properly 
worked  ought  to  yield  a  dividend  of  five- 
hundred  per  cent. 

The  richness  of  the  Uwharrie  River  is 
inexhaustible,  because  every  rain  storm 
and  the  decay  of  rock,  etc.,  on  the  moun- 
tain sides  bring  down  fresh  deposits  of 
gold,  besides  the  rich  tailings  constant- 
ly washing  down  from  the  ravines  above. 

With  the  present  prospects  of  develop- 
ment and  increase  in  value,  and  the  pur- 
chase of  additional  valuable  mineral 
land  and  mines  in  this  section,  stock 
that  is  now  selling  for  $10,  will  be  worth 
$500  or  $1,000. 

Remember  that  the  number  of  shares  to 
be  sold  and  the  time  for  selling  them  is  lim- 
ited, and  if  you  want  to  come  in  at  the 
bottom  price  you  must  not  delay. 


GRANTS  FROM  THE  STATE. 

This  property  is  ours  in  perpetu- 
ity, being  under  grants  from  the  State  of 
North  Carolina,  and  is  daily  growing  richer 
by  the  constant  decay  of  gold-bearing  rocks 
and  the  washing  down  of  gold  from  the 
hillsides. 

We  shall  profit  by  our  riches  in 
double  measure.  Our  miners  will  steadily 
and  regularly  wash  out  the  golden  grains 
by  cradle  and  hydraulic  machinery,  and 
some  of  our  active  stockholders  will  be 
working  their  claims  and  sections,  bringing 
their  families  South  and  adding  to  the  pop- 
ulation and  prosperity  of  this  district. 


THE  TOWN  OF  MARION. 

Near   both   our   properties  are 

beautiful  and  progressive  towns,  in  which 
lots  and  houses  can  be  purchased  at  most 
reasonable  figures.  Marion,  in  McDowell 
County,  is  a  beautiful  town  by  reason  of  its 
location  and  natural  advantages,  almost  a 
peer  of  the  celebrated  Asheville,  the  great- 
est health  resort  in  the  South,  and  near 
which  is  Vanderbilt's  magnificent  winter 
estate,  2,600  feet  above  the  sea,  Nestling 
almost  in  the  clouds,  with  mountain  streams 
of  crystal  clearness,  tumbling  waterfalls, 
beautiful  rides  and  drives,  air  fragrant  with 
the  breath  of  the  balsamic  fir  and  pine,  it 
is  a  most  beautiful  spot.  It  is  indeed  an 
ideal  home,  a  perfect  health  resort,  and  with 
an  abundance  of  rich  farming  land.  Besides 
this  there  is  magnificent  hunting  and  fish- 
ing, and  it  is  only  thirty  hours'  ride  from 
New  York. 

This  is  very  aptly  named  "THE  LAND 
OF  THE  SKY,"  and  every  turn  reminds 
you  of  Mrs.  Craddock's  stories  of  the  Bald 
Knob  and  the  Great  Smoking  Mountains. 


SALISBURY,  N.  C, 

Situated  in  Randolph  County,  and  lying 
nearest  to  our  Uhwarrie  River  property,  is 
a  handsome  town,  filled  with  hospitable 
and  active  citizens,  bright  and  active  busi- 
ness men,  public  officers  of  exceptional 
ability  and  integrity,  and  some  of  the  hand- 
somest ladies  in  the  South. 

Both  of  these  growing  towns  are  situated 
on  the  Richmond  and  Danville  railroad, 
running  through  trains  daily  from  New 
York,  and  with  elegant  Pullman  cars.  Sur- 
rounded by  the  richest  and  most  fertile 
farming  land,  beautiful  and  valuable  tim- 
ber, and  within  easy  distance  of  some  of 
the  richest  gold  fields  of  the  world,  it  has  a 
prosperous  and  active  future  before  it. 


10 


At  Charlotte  may  be  seen  the  old 
Government  mint  and  assay  house  of  stone, 
built  expressly  for  the  gold  from  Southern 
mines,  and  for  many  years  run  exclusively 
for  that  purpose. 

The  North  Carolina  Gold-Mining 
and  Bullion  Company  owns  nearly 
every  foot  of  the  celebrated  IJhwarrie  River 
from  its  source  to  where  it  empties  into  the 
Yadkin  River.  Reference  to  the  maps  in 
this  book  will  give  an  idea  of  the  immense 
value  of  this  property.  Indeed,  there  is 
enough  gold  hidden  in  its  sands  and  gravel 
to  build  the  city  of  Philadelphia  of  gold 
bricks.  And  it  is  constantly  increasing  day 
by  day  and  hour  by  hour.  Best  of  all  it  is 
mostly  upon  the  surface,  making  it  easily 
and  readily  accessible,  without  expensive 
machinery  or  deep  mining. 

It  is  in  this  grand  property  that  each 
shareholder  participates,  and  from  which 
with  us  he  will  reap  a  golden  harvest  of 
wealth. 

Besides  this  are  the  valuable  properties 
in  McDowell  County,  in  which  county  more 
precious  metals  and  rare  gems  have  been 
found  than  in  any  other  county  in  the 
United  States. 


THE  CHANCE  OF  A  LIFE-TIME. 

Indeed,  we  believe  we  are  offering  you 
the  chance  of  a  life-time,  an  opportunity  to 
make  a  fortune  not  unlike  in  many  partic- 
ulars the  wealth  of  Mackay,  O'Brien  and 
Flood,  in  California,  who  now  count  it  by 
the  millions,  where  once  they  had  nothing. 
Indeed,  some  of  our  richest  mining  million- 
aires were  once  common  day  laborers. 

The  same  rapid  rise  to  fortune  from  small 
beginnings  and  fortunate  investments  may 
be  cited  of  our  oil  princes,  the  Flaglers 
(Standard  Oil  Company),  and  our  sugar 
kings,  Havemeyer  and  Spreckles. 


SAVE  YOUR  MONEY. 

Save  your  money  and  invest  it  in  new 
lands  and  new  but  reliable  enterprises.  A 
few  dollars  saved  each  week  or  month  and 
properly  invested  now  may  make  you  a  rich 
and  prosperous  man  in  the  future.  It  is 
hard  to  save  money,  but  it  pays.  We  are 
wont  nowadays  to  consider  luxuries  as 
necessaries,  and  to  spend  money  foolishly 
that  might  be  steadily  making  you  a  fortune. 

This  is  indeed  the  chance  of  a  life-time. 
More  marvelous  than  the  Arabian  Nights 
and  Aladdin's  Lamp,  or  the  Philosopher's 
Stone. 

Owingto  favorable  weather  claims 
can  be  worked  the  year  round. 


WHY  THESE  GOLD-FIELDS  HAVE 
BEEN  NEGLECTED. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  gold  fever  in  Cali- 
fornia in  '49,  and  then  the  war,  free  slaves 
and  consequent  inactivity  in  the  South,  these 
fields  (Western  North  Carolina)  would  by 
this  time  have  yielded  many  millions  of 
gold  and  gems.  Samples  of  all  forms  of  gold 
taken  from  these  fields,  weights,  assay  qual- 
ity, purity,  percentage,  etc. ,  as  also  many  rare 
gems  and  minerals,  besides  diamonds,  are 
on  exhibition  at  our  offices. 

The  public  can  benefit.— We  prefer 
to  have  a  thousand  small  stockholders  and 
claim-owners  rather  than  five  or  ten  large 
ones.  We  thus  get  active  friends  and  co- 
workers in  every  part  of  the  country,  hasten 
the  development  of  the  mineral  resources 
of  our  property,  and  thus  enrich  ourselves 
and  our  shareholders  as  well. 

Most  of  the  large  mining  lands  and  rich 
mines,  even  in  this  region,  are  owned  by 
syndicates  of  a  few  wealthy  men,  whose 
profits  are  enormous.  We  want  thousands 
of  working  men,  strong,  able-bodied  and 
self-reliant,  clerks,  small  capitalists,  etc. 

There  is  scarcely  a  man  who  can  not  lay 
the  foundation  of  a  fortune  by  purchasing 
one  share  of  stock,  and  many  can  purchase 
ten  and  twenty  snares.  Every  share  pur- 
chased means  another  mining  claim  given 
away,  and  on  which  one  is  liable  to  find 
diamonds,  a  gold  vein,  and  even  a  nugget 
of  pure  gold,  as  witness  the  following  recent 
cases  quoted  from  the  Financial  and  Mining 
Record  of  New  York. 


NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Caky. — On  the  farm  of  E.  A.  Yates,  two 
miles  south  of  this  place,  gold  has  been  dis- 
covered. Upon  an  analysis  being  made  it 
was  found  not  to  be  pure  gold  but  gold 
pyrites,  and  it  is  estimated  to  be  worth 
$70,000  a  hundred  feet.  The  rock  in  which 
the  mineral  is  imbedded  extends  across  Mr. 
Yates'  farm  and  is  several  hundred  feet  in 
width.  It  is  estimated  that  the  cost  of  min- 
ing it  will  be  between  $10,000  and  $15,000 
per  hundred  feet.  Not  having  sufficient 
capital  to  develop  the  property  it  is  stated 
that  the  owner  will  dispose  of  it. 

Asheville. — A  specimen  of  corrundum 
weighing  over  100  lbs.,  and  which  is  far  the 
finest  specimen  ever  discovered  in  this  State 
is  on  exhibition  in  this  city.  The  firm  of 
Jenks  &  Jenks  is  collecting  from  the  various 
corrundum  mines  of  North  Carolina  a  full 
line  of  samples  which  will  be  properly 
marked  and  exhibited  at  the  World's  Fair 
at  Chicago. 


11 


ELEVEN-POUND  GOLD  NUGGET. 

"  Troy,  North  Carolina.— Nelson  Russell, 
while  prospecting  on  a  gold-bearing  vein  on 
the  Bunnell  Mountain  property,  found  a 
gold  nugget  weighing  eleven  pounds,  two 
thirds  of  which  was  pure  gold .  It  was  found 
imbedded  in  a  flint  quartz  vein  about  twenty 
feet  from  the  surface.  Mr.  Russell  and  P. 
C.  Sanders  have  control  of  this  property,  and 
are  preparing  to  push  developments.  This 
is  said  to  be  the  largest  gold  nugget  of  which 
there  is  any  record,  that  was  ever  found  in 
this  region.  The  TJwharrie  section  of  this 
county,  which  includes  the  spot  where  this 
nugget  was  found,  is  coming  to  the  front  as 
a  gold  producing  region.  In  a  strip  of  coun- 
try extending  not  more  than  ten  miles  in 
length  and  two  miles  in  width,  with  the 
TJwharrie  River  running  through  the  cen- 
tre. Not  less  than  $500,000  have  been  taken 
out  in  the  last  fifteen  months  by  the  natives, 
with  only  the  crudest  kind  of  washing  ma- 
chinery, such  as  the  hand  rocker  and  pan. 

"Burke  County. —There  are  now  five 
gold  mines  in  operation  in  this  county ;  one 
of  them,  at  Brindletown,  has  been  in  active 
operation  for  nearly  a  century. 

"Davidson  County.— The  superintendent 
of  the  Silver  Valley  mines  reports  the  recent 
discovery  of  probably  the  richest  deposit  of 
silver  ore  ever  found  in  the  South.  It  is  a 
large  vein  of  carbonate  of  lead  carrying  70 
to  100  ounces  of  silver  and  30  per  cent,  of 
lead  to  a  ton  of  ore. 

"Jackson  County.— There  are  valuable 
deposits  of  nickel  ore  found  in  this  county 


that  equal  any  in  Sudbury,  Canada,  and  are 
only  excelled  by  the  New  Caledonian  de- 
posits. This  N.  C.  ore  assays  11  to  32  per 
cent,  in  metallic  nickel.  The  deposits  are 
near  Webster,  four  miles  from  the  Western 
N.  C.  Railroad.  The  mine  is  said  to  have 
an  inexhaustible  deposit  of  chromic  iron, 
analyzing  about  55  per  cent,  of  chromic  ore. 

"  Oxford. — It  is  reported  that  Pennsylva- 
nia capitalists  have  purchased  land  in  Gran- 
ville county  and  contemplate  the  developing 
of  copper  mines  in  this  vicinity. 

"  Greensboro. — A  gold  mine  has  just  been 
discovered  within  ten  miles  of  this  place, 
which  is  yielding  the  finest  specimen  of 
quartz  gold.  The  shaft  has  been  sunk  eight- 
een feet,  and  a  vein  several  feet  thick  has 
been  struck. 

"Albemarle. —  A  lump  of  pure  gold, 
weighing  11  ounces,  without  any  gravel  or 
dirt  about  it,  was  found  a  few  feet  below  the 
surface  at  the  Hearn  and  Hathcock  mine 
near  this  place  recently. 

"Pittsboro. — For  many  years  gold  has 
been  obtained  in  the  section  of  Chatham 
county  in  the  vicinity  of  Moncure.  A  shaft 
has  been  recently  sunk  about  twelve  feet 
deep  on  the  farm  of  B.  G.  Womble,  and 
some  rich  ore  has  been  taken  out.  A  party 
of  capitalists  have  leased  this  property,  and 
will  thoroughly  test  it." 

Shares  cheap  now,  immensely  valuable 
later. — This  is  indeed  the  chance  of  a  life- 
time, and,  unprecedented  as  the  offer  seems, 
it  is  not  without  its  parallel  in  the  actual 
facts  of  the  history  of  gold  mining. 


NEWSPAPER  AND  OTHER  EXTRACTS. 


Names  of  Persons  who  Have  Found  Diamonds  and  other 
Cems  in  North  Carolina. 


Names.  Where  Found. 

Dr.  F.  M.  Stephenson,  .  .  .  Brindletown  Creek,  N.  C. 
Prof.  Geo.  W.  Fetherstonebaugh  .  .  .  Same  district. 
Gen.  Thos.  L.  Clingman,*  .  D.  J.  Twitty's  Mine,  N.  C. 
C.  Leventhorpe, 

Placer  Mine,  Rutherford  County,  N.  C. 

Dr.  C.  L.  Hunter   Patterson,  N.  C. 

No  name,  one  very  handsome,  pure  white,  and  one 
black  diamond  of  large  size  (size  of  chestnut), 

Todd's  Branch,  N.  C. 

Prof.  Genth,  two  fine  stones, 

Portis  Mine,  Franklin  County,  N.  C. 
Will  Chrystie,  25  stones,  four  and  one  half  carats, 
mentioned  by  Kunze,  Tiffany's  expert  in  Gems  and 
Precious  Stones,  N.  Y.,  1890.   Sent  to  Tiffany  &  Co. 

Dysortville,  Muddy  Creek,  N.  C. 


*  Full  description  by  Prof.  Chas.  M.  Shepherd,  in 
American  Journal  of  Science,  vol.  2.  p.  253.  Professor 
Shepherd  and  Pr<<f  F.  A.  Genth,  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  b  »th  predict  the  finding  of  num- 
bers of  diamonds  if  proper  systematic  search  is 
made.  See  paper  by  Prof.  Shepherd  before  the 
American  Association  of  Geologists  and  Naturalists. 


Col.  Hy.  Deming,  value  $1,500. 

Muddy  Creek,  McDowell  County,  N.  C„ 
Clay  Morgan,  one  diamond  .  Montgomery  Co.,  N.  C. 

Many  others  have  been  found  in  the  same  diamond 
belt,  notably  one  owned  by  John  H.  Tyler,  Sr.,  of 
Richmond,  cut  by  Hy.  D.  Morse,  of  Boston,  Mass., 
and  sold  for  $4,000,  and  on  which  John  Morrissey 
loaned  $6,000.  It  weighed  originally  twenty-three 
and  three  quarter  carats,  and  when  cut,  twelve  car- 
ats. Sam'l  Dewey,  of  Jackson,  bought  it  and  named 
it  the  Ohinoor,  or  "  Sun  of  Light."  It  was  on  exhi- 
bition in  the  window  of  Ball,  Black  &  Co.,  the  great 
jewelers  of  New  York.  Limited  space  forbids  our 
giving  particulars  of  other  stones. 


EMERALDS  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

One  very  large  and  fine  color,  found  by  John  T. 
Humphreys  (now  in  New  York  State  Museum  at  Al- 
bany), weighs  eight  and  three  quarter  ounces,  only 
one  quarter  ounce  less  than  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 
emerald  crystal. 


12 


Two  very  fine  specimens,  owned  by  Clarence  S. 
Bement. 

Several  specimens  in  the  British  Museum  of  Lon- 
don, Eng. 

A  number  of  fine  specimens  in  the  possession  of 
Dr.  J.  C.  Stephenson,  of  Statesville,  N.  C. 

Fine  specimens  of  blue  beryl  by  Prof.  Wm.  E.  Hid- 
den, from  Mitchell  County,  N.  C. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Miller,  two  emeralds,  near  Statesville, 
N.  C. 

Mr.  J.  O.  Lackey,  thirty-six  emeralds,  near  States- 
ville, N.  C. 

Mr.  D.  Parliew,  one  emerald  and  one  aqua-marine, 
Sugar  Loaf  Township,  N.  C. 

Mr.  Stafford,  one  aqua-marine,  Dudley  Shoal,  N.  C. 

Dr.  J.  Stephenson  says :  "I  have  collected  a  num- 
ber of  yellow  beryls  on  the  Price  Lands  near  Poplar 
Springs.  *  *  *  *  Blue  beryls  occur  on  D.  R. 
Lackey's  farm.  On  January  12,  a  farmer  brought  me 
an  aqua-marine  which  he  found  while  plowing  a 
field  near  Little  River  Church.  It  is  the  most  won- 
derful yet  found  in  the  "United  States.  It  weighs 
twenty-eight  ounces,  is  quite  transparent,  and  will 
•cut  a  number  of  fine  gems." 

Dr.  C.  D.  Smith,  a  number  of  fine  beyrls,  Macon 
€ounty. 

Mr.  *Ray,  of  Burnesville,  a  number  of  fine  gem 
beryls. 

Prof.  John  T.  Humphrey,  a  remarkably  fine  beyrl 
gem. 

Dr.  Stephenson  says : 


AMETHYSTS 

"  Amethysts  are  found  at  a  number  of  localities  in 
Iredell  County,  but  very  few  suitable  for  cutting. 
The  best  are  found  near  Shepherd's  Cross  Roads  and 
at  Amity  Hill.  I  have  a  verv  fine  one  that  was  found 
in  Clay  County.  The  late  Dr.  C.  L.  Hunter  found  a 
very  fine  amethyst  near  his  home  in  Lincoln  County. 
The  late  Prof.  J.  T.  Humphrey  found  quite  a  number 
in  Burke  County  near  the  Catawba  line.  They  are 
Temarkable  specimens  of  fine  color  and  full  of  brill- 
iant needles  of  rutile.  I  have  in  my  cabinet  one  of 
the  largest  of  these  specimens,  which  was  a  present 
from  Prof.  Humphrey. 

For  verification  of  all  the  above  mentioned  facts 
see  the  Statesville,  N.  C,  Landmark  of  March  14, 1889, 
and  "  Kunz  on  Gems  and  Precious  Stones,"  New 
York,  1880. 


RUBY,  SAPPHIRE,  AMETHYSTS,  ETC.,  (CORUN- 
DUM), IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Prof.  Kunz  says :  "  The  great  corundum  region  is 
the  crystalline  rocks  of  North  Carolina." 

Prof.  Stillman,  of  Yale  College,  numerous  beauti- 
ful specimens. 

Gen.  Thos.  L.  Clingman,  large  specimen  picked 
up  at  base  of  mountain  on  the  French  Broad  river. 

Dr.  C.  L.  Hunter,  in  Gaston  County,  referred  to  by 
Prof.  Emmons. 

Rev.  C.  D.  Smith,  of  Franklin,  N.  C,  several  fine 
specimens. 

Systematic  mining  for  these  stones  now  being  con- 
ducted at  Jenks  mine,  Lucas  mine,  Culogee  mine, 
Corundum  Hill  mine,  and  Buck  Creek  mine. 

Mr.  Chas.  W.  Jenks  found  the  "  King  of  Rubies," 
which  is  the  largest  ruby  crystal  ever  found,  being 
five  times  larger  than  any  other  in  the  world.  Now 
in  the  cabinet  of  Amherst  College.  This  crystal 
weighs  312  pounds. 

Two  fine  rubies  found  in  North  Carolina  are  now 
in  the  cabinet  of  Clarence  S.  Bement,  of  Philadel- 
phia, There  also  may  be  found  the  finest  specimen 
known  of  the  emerald  green  sapphire  (oriental  eme- 
rald) found  also  in  North  Carolina. 

Very  fine  dark  blue  stone,  weighing  one  carat,  is 
in  the  U.  S.  National  Museum  at  Washington. 


FROM  STATE  GEOLOGICAL  REPORT  WE 
NOTE  THE  FOLLOWING: 

The  Gold   Gravels    and  Accompanying 
Vein  Deposits  of  the  Piedmont 
and  Mountain  Regions. 


The  gold  gravels  in  North  Carolina  have  a  distribu- 
tion as  wide  as  that  of  the  crystalline  rocks.  Their 
occurrence  at  a  number  of  places  in  the  middle  re- 
gion of  the  State  has  been  mentioned  already  in 
describing  the  mines  of  that  region  (pages  236.  241, 
247,  254,  258,  and  others),  the  most  extensive  and  im- 
portant of  these  deposits  being  in  Montgomery  and 
adjacent  counties.  It  remains  now  to  describe  the 
more  important  of  these  deposits  occurring  in  the 
Piedmont  and  mountain  regions  of  the  state.  In 
these  regions  as  in  localties  already  described,  gold 
occurs  both  in  the  gravel-beds  and  in  veins  ;  and  at 
many  places  both  placer  mining  and  vein  mining  are 
prosecuted. 

These  gold-bearing  gravel-deposits  usually  occur 
along  the  lower  slopes  of  hi]  Is  and  mountains, 
in  the  valleys  between  them,  along  the 
beds  of  streams,  in  their  channels,  on  the 
benches,  and  in  a  variety  of  ways  ;  also  in  ancient 
eroded  basins  or  channels,  which  neither  in  situation 
nor  direction  bear  any  relations  to  channels  of  exist- 
ing streams.  They  are  usually  of  no  great  length  or 
breadth,  but  in  some  localities,  viz.,  the  South  Moun- 
tains, Vein  Mountain,  and  Hunt's  Mountain,  they 
are  quite  numerous.  Their  thickness  varies  from  a 
few  feet  to  thirty  feet  and  more.  In  the  basins  and  at 
the  foot  of  the  slopes,  the  gold  usually  occurs  with  th  e 
coarser  gravel,  near  the  bottom  of  the  deposit— more 
largely  along  the  bottoms  of  ancient  and  modern 
streams;  higher  up,  on  the  sides  of  the  hills,  it  is 
more  generally  distributed  throughout  the  entire 
superficial  earthy  deposit. 

In  the  region  last  mentioned  a  considerable 
amount  of  mining  has  been  done,  and  the  deposits 
(placers)  here  are  the  most  extensive  of  the  State. 
Ihe  area  over  which  they  are  spread,  in  the  counties 
of  Burke,  McDowell  and  Rutherford,  is  fifteen  to 
twenty  miles  long  from  northeast  to  soutlrwest,  fol- 
lowing the  general  direction  of  the  mountain 
ranges,  and  from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  wide.  It 
touches  the  northwest  corner  of  Cleveland  County, 
and  probably  includes  the  Polk  County  deposits, 
some  twenty-five  miles  southwest. 

The  third,  or  McDowell  belt,  is  four  miles  still 
further  west.  It  has  a  width  of  about  two  miles, 
with  Hunt's  Mountain  and  Nichols'  Mountain  for  its 
center.  It  is  situated  on  the  headwaters  of  Sforth 
Muddy  Creeh,  and  of  the  Second  Broad  River, 
and  for  the  most  part  to  the  east  of  the  road  from 
Marion  to  Rutherfordton. 

An  immense  quantity  of  gold  has  been  obtained 
from  the  mines  of  this  region  since  their  opening  in 
1829— probably  between  two  and  three  million  dol- 
lars ;  and  I  am  informed  by  some  of  the  older  citi- 
zens, that  just  before  the  California  gold  deposits 
began  to  attract  attention,  as  many  as  three  thousand 
hands  might  have  been  seen  at  work  on  one  of  the 
streams  of  the  region. 

The  operations  of  the  past,  when  little  capital  and 
machinery  were  employed,  were  necessarily  confined 
to  such  deposits  as  lay  near  water,  or  to  which  water 
could  easily  be  brought.  There  is  still  a  large 
amount  of  gold  in  the  beds  which  remains 
untouched,  as  well  as  in  those  which  have 
been  carelessly  or  rudely  worlted  over — 
some  of  them  more  than  once.  Indeed  some  of  the 
richest  of  these  deposits  have  remained  unworked 
on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  bringing  a  supply  of 
water  to  their  level,  being  situated  considerably 
above  the  neighboring  streams,  on  the  higher  slopes 
and  benches  of  the  foot  hills  of  the  mountains. 

The  total  amount  of  the  precious  metals  produced 
bv  the  mines  of  North  Carolina  up  to  December  31, 


1886,  so,  far  as  U.  S.  official  records  afford  evidence, 

is  as  follows : 

Gold  $11,089,502  36 

Silver   84,019  75 


Total  $11,173,522  11 

It  is  certain,  however,  that  this  is  but  a  part  of  the 
production,  for  much  of  it  is  known  to  nave  been 
exported  directly  by  companies  having  headquarters 
abroad.  Moreover,  up  to  the  time  of  the  discovery  of 
gold  in  California,  there  was  a  large  demand  for 
native  gold  by  jewelers,  and  the  Carolina  gold  was 
in  request  on  account  of  its  beauty.  It  is  not  an 
unreasonable  conjecture  that  the  amount  which  has 
in  various  ways  escaped  official  notice  is  as  large  as 
that  on  record  ;  and  that  the  total  amount  produced 
in  the  State  can  hardly  have  been  less  than  822,000,- 
000.00. 

At  the  present  writing  the  following^mines  are  at 
work :  Portis,  in  Nash  County ;  the  Cagel,  Bums, 
and  Bell,  in  Moore  County  ;  the  Steel,  Coggius,  and 
Russell,  in  Montgomery  County;  the  Crowell,  in 
Stanly  County ;  the  Uwharrie  and  Hoover  Hill,  in 
Randolph  County ;  the  Gold  Hill  and  Icenhour,  in  r 
Rowan  County ;  the  Phoenix,  Rocky  River,  and  | 
Reed,  in  Cabarrus  County ;  the  Henderson,  Rudisill. 
St.  Catherine,  Point,  Davidson,  Cathey,  Hill,  Dunn, 
and  Ray,  in  Mecklenburg  County ;  the  Howie, 
Hem  by,  and  Stearns,  in  Union  County  ;  the  Cataw- 
ba, in  Gaston  county;  the  Vein  Mountain  and 
Marion  Bullion  (Granville),  in  McDowell  County; 
the  Hancock,  Mills,  Carolina  Queen,  in  Burke 
County ;  the  Boilston,  in  Henderson  County ;  the 
Double  Branch,  in  Polk  County— in  all  thirty-five. 


From  the  Richmond  Dispatch,  Saturday,  Aug.  1, 
1891. 

A  RICH  GOLD  FIND. 

Two  Natives  found  with  Four  Quarts  of 
Gold  Jiussets  —  They  were  Secretly  work- 
ing a  Rich  Gold  Vein— The  work  stopped 
and  Senator  Spooner  notified. 

Salisbury,  N.  C,  July  21. — It  is  reported  by  parties 
from  Montgomery  County  that  another  rich  gold- 
find  has  been  made  close  to  the  Uwharrie  river  in 
that  county  which  will  perhaps  surpass  the  Sanders 
find.   The  facts  as  learned  are  these  : 

FOUR  QUARTS  OF  GOLD  NUGGETS. 

It  was  discovered  that  two  of  the  natives  had 
about  four  quarts  of  gold  nuggets,  and  it  was  also 
discovered  about  the  same  time  that  they  were  in 
the  habit  of  spending  their  nights  away  from  home. 

WORKING  A  RICH  VEIN. 

They  were  watched  and  the  fact  was  revealed  that 
they  had  discovered  and  were  working  a  very  rich 
vein  on  the  property  recently  bought  by  Senator 
Spooner,  of  Wisconsin,  and  associate. 

THE  WORK  STOPPED. 

A  telegram  has  been  sent  to  Spooner,  and  the  Avork 
has  been  stopped.  A  number  of  rich  finds  has  been 
made  in  this  the  richest  mining  section  of  the 
Rockies. 

A  GREAT  FIND. 

Gold  represents  concentrated  wealth  ;  hence,  the 
finding  of  large  quantities  of  the  precious  metal  is 
the  best  of  news  in  a  purely  worldly  sense. 

Mr.  Carter,  a  gentlemen  living  in  Montgomery 
County,  came  to  Salisbury  last  week  and  reported 
most  wonderful  stories  of  a  big  find  of  gold  near 
his  home,  saying  that  over  a  bushel  had  been  taken 
out  in  the  last  four  weeks.  The  statement  seemed  so 
fabulous  that  before  giving  it  to  the  world  we  con- 
cluded to  send  a  representative  down  to  the  place  (it 
being  only  thirty-five  miles)  and  find  out  the  facts, 


which  are  as  follows,  and  which  we  can  safely  vouch 
for: 

The  discovery  was  made  on  a  piece  of  land  con- 
trolled by  Mr.  P  C.  Saunders,  but  which  belonged  to* 
a  brother  in  Texas.  The  discovery  was  made  acci- 
dentally by  a  young  man  who  was  out  turkey-hunt- 
ing, and  work  was  at  once  begun  in  washing  the 
surface.  While  this  was  being  done  three  little- 
stringers,  or  veins,  were  uncovered  which  were  nearly 
all  gold.  The  find  was  kept  quiet  as  long  as  possibler 
but  when  ic  became  generally  known  the  brother 
was  telegraphed  for,  and  he  replied  to  stop  the  work 
at  once  until  his  arrival.  Our  representative  hap- 
pened on  the  ground  at  a  very  inopportune  time, 
being  only  a  few  hours  after  the  hands  had  been 
ordered  to  stop  work,  and  for  this  reason  could  not 
see  the  work  in  progress,  but  from  interviews  had 
with  the  men  and  from  what  he  saw  he  does  not 
hesitate  in  saying  that  Mr.  Carter's  statement  in  re- 
gard to  the  bushel  was  correct. 

About  half  of  this  gold  was  taken  out  of  the  top 
surface  and  fhe  remainder  from  three  parallel  string- 
ers, or -veins,  about  eight  feet  apart  and  about  one- 
half  inch  in  thickness.  Two  of  these  ve^ns  have 
been  sunk  to  the  depth  of  about  twenty  feet,  while 
the  other  has  a  depth  of  only  a  few  feet. 

The  people  in  the  neighborhood  are  all  very  much 
excited  over  the  find,  and  very  naturally  so.  They 
now  talk  of  gold  by  the  pound,  while  heretofore  it 
was  only  by  the  grain. 

Our  representative  was  told  by  several 
parties  whom  he  knew  and  had  confi- 
dence in,  that  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
last  day  they  worked  that  one  man  took 
out  with  only  a  pick,  and  in  a  very  short 
time,  probably  two  hours,  over  two  thou- 
sand pennyweights  of  gold ;  that  two 
young  men,  Morris  and  Cornelison,  wash- 
ed out  in  a  day  and  a  half  over  ten  and 
one  half  pounds  of  gold ;  that  one  man 
got  permission  to  work  on  the  tailings, 
and  rocked  out  forty-two  pennyweights 
in  three  rockerfuls,  and  was  then  stop- 
ped. Many  other  stories  of  a  like  kind 
were  lolci,  which  for  lack  of  space  we 
omit.  Our  representative,  who  is  a  prac- 
tical miner,  offered  ten  dollars  for  the 
privilege  of  working  two  hours,  but  was 
asked  fifty  dollars  for  that  privilege. 

All  this  was  learned  on  the  ground,  and  we  are 
satisfied  that  it  is  as  near  correct  as  possible  to  get  at 
the  facts. 

The  property  is  situated  in  a  gold-bearing  belt 
extending  many  miles,  in  which  large  quantities  of 
gold  have  been  found  in  the  creeks  and  gulches,  and 
there  are  thousands  of  places  in  the  neighborhood 
where  the  outside  indications  are  better  for  gold 
than  where  this  was  found. 

Other  late  finds  our  representative  heard  of  in  the 
same  neighborhood,  notable  of  which  were  those  of 
a  darkey  who  alone  took  out  over  $1,000  in  less  than 
two  weeks,  and  that  of  the  Nail  land,  on  which  big 
finds  had  been  made,  one  nugget  weighing  over  a 
pound— all  within  the  past  month — Carolina  Watch- 
man, Nov.  14,  1879. 


MONTGOMERY  COUNTY. 

Quite  a  number  of  good  prospects  have  already 
been  struck.  Among  them  is  one  on  Jas.  G.  Cotton's 
land,  where  he  uncovered  a  slate  vein  over  ten  feet 
in  width.  Jess  and  Dump  Morris  are  opening  a  good 
prospect  on  the  Jim  Kron  land  ;  John  Beaman  has- 
two  good  prospects;  one  on  Horse  Mountain  andi 
oue  on  Spencer's  Creek,  and  Sheriff  I.  E.  Saunders 
thinks  he  has  struck  a  bonanza  on  his  land  at 
Uwharrie  P.  O. 

Among  the  recent  finds  in  that  section  is 
that  of  a  diamond  on  the  Polly  Cr  an  ford 
land  by  Clay  Morgan,  which  he  sold  to  an 
expert  named  Brown. 


14 


The  gold  fever  is  very  high,  and  it  is  very  probable 
that  it  has  not  reached  its  climax  yet. 

The  Appalachian  Mine,  near  Eldorado,  is  running 
on  full  time  with  twenty  stamps,  and  the  Russell 
Mine  is  running  with  forty  stamps.— Carolina  Watch- 
man, Dec.  12,  1889. 


THE  MONTGOMERY  BONANZA. 

Editor  Watchman. 

Dear  Sir:  My  name  has  been  and  is  still  being 
used  in  connection  with  the  telegram  regarding  the 
newly  discovered  gold  mine  on  the  Saunders  prop- 
erty, which  has  caused  so  much  comment  by  differ- 
ent men  of  the  press  and  criticised  by  many  persons, 
some  of  whom  pronounce  it  too  fabulous  for  recog- 
nition, while  your  representative  with  many  other 
reliable  people  indorse  it.  Below  I  will  give  you 
some  other  features  of  the  bonanza.  I  shall  confine 
myself  to  what  I  have  seen  and  gathered  from  relia- 
ble persons  who  ha^e  been  working  in  the  mine.  * 

One  man,  who  claims  to  have  been  working  the 
poorest  part  of  the  mine,  took  out  one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  fifty  pennyweights,  which  was  inter- 
spersed with  quartz,  the  quartz  being  hammered  and 
taken  out,  seven  hundred  and  sixteen  pennyweights 
of  pure  gold  remained,  or  little  less  than  half  of  the 
original.  This  was  the  result  of  twenty-four  hours' 
work. 

One  man,  who,  by  the  way  is  an  ex-County  Com- 
missioner, found  in  the  same  length  of  time  five 
hundred  and  four  pennyweights. 

Another  party  began  work  one  morning,  and  at 
9  o'clock  a.  m.,  same  day,  had  found  and  reported  to 
"headquarters"  four  (4)  pounds,  and  at  12  o'clock 
%  same  day  reported  one  pound. 

I  am  reliably  informed  that  eleven  (11)  pounds 
weighed  on  grocery  scales,  was  the  toll  resulting 
from  the  work  of  one  week.  (About  five  pounds  are 
not  included  in  the  latter. ) 

I  saw  some  of  the  hands  dividing  their  gold  in  the 
same  manner  as  would  two  boys  in  dividing  apples, 
one  would  take  a  piece  and  another  in  like  manner 
until  it  was  all  exhausted,  all  of  which  seemed  to  be 
satisfactory  with  the  parties  concerned. 

Mr.  Nelson  Russell  and  James  Cotton,  Esq.,  who 
worked  in  the  mine,  are  both  open  for  interviews  by 
any  representative  of  the  press  or  otherwise.  Think 
the  above  loss  in  the  one  thousand  four  hundred 
and  fifty  pennyweights  lot  will  not  do  for  a  criterion 
for  a  basis  of  true  value,  simply  because  this  quantity 
contained  much  more  quartz  than  does  the  main 
bulk  taken  out.  W.  M.  Carter. 

Nails,  N.  C,  Nov.  30,  1889. 


LATEST  DEVELOPMENTS  AT  THE  TEBE 
SAUNDERS  MINE. 

Sheriff  I.  E.  Saunders  and  C.  C.  Wade,  Esq.,  were 
up  to  the  Saunders  Mine  day  before  yesterday,  and 
brought  up  news  of  quite  an  exciting  nature  in 
regard  to  the  developments  now  being  made  at  this 
extraordinarily  rich  gold  deposit. 

These  men  met  at  the  mine,  Senator  J.  €. 
Spooner  and  Hon.  J.  F.  Taylor,  of  Wiscon- 
sin (the  recent  purchasers  of  the  prop- 
erty), Senator  Geo.  Hearst,  of  California, 
Jno.  A.  Kirk.  Esq.,  of  Washington  City, 
and  several  other  capitalists  of  the  North 
and  West  who,  we  snppose,  came  down  to 
see  and  know  for  themselves  the  truth  as 
to  its  reputed  great  value. 

Two  blasts  were  made  in  the  clearly  ex- 
posed vein,  located  at  the  bottom  and 
about  the  middle  of  the  main  shaft,  which 
is  not  more  than  thirty  feet  deep,  and 
from  these  two  blasts  we  are  told  that  not 
less  than  two  thousand  dollars  worth  of 
pure  gold  nuggets  was  quickly  gathered 
up,  and  this  does  not  include  the  gold  that 


was  yet  to  be  separated  from  the  quartz 
ore  thrown  up  by  the  blasts,  which  ore 
sparkled  more  or  less  with  visible  parti- 
cles of  the  precious  metal. 

Such  a  mine— a  vertable  bonanza  indeed 
—  as  this  has  proved  to  be,  naturally 
creates  excitement ;  however,  we  believe 
our  people  have  about  cooled  down,  but 
those  gentlemen  from  the  Northwest  who 
were  there  Tuesday  were  perfectly  as- 
tounded, and  Senator  Hearst  was  heard 
to  remark  that  be  had  seen  the  rich  mines 
of  California,  but  this  was  the  richest 
gold  deposit  he  had  ever  seen.— Montgom- 
ery Tidette,  Jan.  16, 1890. 

We  learned  from  a  gentleman  from  Eldorado, 
Montgomery  County,  Friday,  that  parties  from  Cali- 
fornia were  now  in  that  county  prospecting  for  gold 
in  the  bottoms  along  the  Uwharrie  River ;  that  in 
every  case  where  pits  had  been  sunk  they  had  found 
the  gravel  to  be  very  rich  and  were  buying  what 
they  could  of  it.  The  best  of  the  bed  of  this  river  is 
controlled  by  parties  here  and  in  all  probability 
work  will  be  begun  on  it  this  spring— Carolina  Watch- 
man, Jan.  20,  1890. 


LATEST  FROM  MONTGOMERY. 

We  learn  from  the  Greensboro  Patriot  that  Mr. 
John  Kirk,  the  original  purchaser  of  the  Tebe  Saun- 
ders mine,  has  sold  a  one  half  interest  in  it  to  a 
northern  syndicate  for  $100,000. 

We  also  learn  from  the  same  source  that  Mr.  I.  E. 
Saunders,  the  Sheriff  of  Montgomery  County,  has 
discovered  on  his  property  on  the  Uwharrie 
river  and  about  one  mile  from  the  Saun- 
ders mine,  a  very  rich  find  of  gold,  on 
which  he  gave  an  option  for  ninety  days 
for  twenty-five  thousand  dollars. 

Other  finds  in  this  wonderfully  rich  neighborhood 
are  reported.— Carolina  Watchman,  Feb.  13, 1890 


From  the  Atlanta  Constitution.] 
THE  TOWN  OF  MARION. 

In  McDowell  County  Near  the  Lands  of 
the  North  Carolina  t»old -Mining 
and  Bullion  Co. 


Marion,  N.  C,  April  23. — [Special  correspondence 
Constitution.]— It  is  well  that  this  busy  place  has  been 
called  the  "  Magnetic  City  of  the  Mountains,"  for 
there  is  everything  in  the  surroundings  to  indicate 
that  the  distinction  is  deserved. 

The  superior  railroad  location  of  Marion  is  another 
feature  that  gives  her  strength  and  hope.  .  She  is  at 
the  intersection  of  the  Charleston,  Cincinnati,  and 
Chicago  Railroad,  and  the  Western  North  Carolina 
Division  of  the  Richmond  and  Danville,  a  position 
of  the  most  decided  merit,  since  it  gives  her  two 
trunk  lines  running  north  and  south  and  east  and 
west 


GOLD. 

Tnere  is  everything  to  indicate  a  marvelous  store 
of  wealth  in  the  surroundings,  and  to-day  I  have 
taken  the  trouble  to  make  a  hurried  investigation  of 
the  diversified  interests  that  seem  to  congregate 
here. 

She  has  gold— and  in  rich  veins — as  is  clearly  indi- 
cated by  the  successful  placer  and  quartz  mining  that 
has  been  encouraged  for  years,  and  which  is  still 
profitably  pursued.  There  are  ten  or  fifteen  mines 
being  worked  within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  of 
Marion,  the  most  important  of  which  being  the  Vein 
mountain,  about  ten 'miles  distant. 


15 


MICA  AND  BUILDING  AND  PAVING  STONES.  I 

There  are  also  ten  or  twelve  mica  mines  that  are  ! 
being  operated  within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  of 
this  point.  With  no  other  means  of  transportation 
from  the  mines  hut  by  wagon  trains,  this  industry  is 
so  important  that  Marion  shows  the  largest  shipment 
of  mica  of  anv  point  in  the  world.  Then  there  exists, 
in  considerable  quantities,  asbestos,  talc,  and  kaolin, 
while  the  best  building  and  paving  stones  that  are 
•quarried  are  to  be  had  here. 


MARBLE. 

The  marble  beds  of  this  section  are  very  fine,  both 
in  quality,  variety,  and  supply.  Immense  ledges  of 
all  the  popular  and  desirable  varieties  of  white,  blue, 
gray,  and  black  are  to  be  found  within  eight  miles 
of  Marion.  These  ledges  run  from  northwest  to 
southeast,  and  most  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  hills,  and 
in  such  position  as  to  make  the  mining  very  easy. 
The  quality  of  this  stone  is  very  fine,  it  being  sus- 
ceptible of  the  highest  polish,  and  showing  the  most 
superior  crystallization.  The  white  marble  especially 
has  been  compared  to  the  best  Italian  grade,  and  the 
black  being  of  such  quality,  and  existing  in  such 
quantities,  as  to  make  it  decidedly  valuable. 


TIMBER. 

I  have  also  noticed  here  a  vast  deal  of  timber,  em- 
bracing curled  poplar,  walnut,  oak,  hickory,  ash, 
maple,  wild  cherry,  and  mahogany,  all  in  easy  access. 
This  is  a  very  important  interest,  and  the  different 
woods  named  above  are  to  be  had  in  abundant  sup- 
ply from  the  surrounding  counties  of  McDowell, 
Yancey,  and  Mitchell,  a  territory  of  which  Marion  is 
the  center.  While  all  the  woods  named  exist  in  large 
quantities,  except  mahogany,  which  of  itself  is  a 
paying  growth,  the  most  popular  and  best  paying 
woods  seem  to  be  curled  poplar,  a  beautiful  growth, 
and  ash,  walnut,  and  oak. 


FARM  LANDS. 

This  is  also  one  of  the  greatest  agricultural  sec- 
tions in  the  world.  The  superior  adaptability  of 
the  land  to  farming  pursuits  and  truck  culture  is 
of  such  importance  as  to  make  it  far  in  advance  of 
many  sections  that  trust  alone  to  their  agricultural 
merit.  The  celebrated  Catawba  Valley  lands  are  as  fine  | 
and  productive  as  any  that  can  be  found  within  the 
range  of  my  iuvestigation.  These  luxuriant  ex- 
panses of  verdant  freshness  present  a  scene  that  is 
certainly  not  less  inviting  than  the  magnificent 
range  of  mountains  that  so  majestically  encircle 
them,  since  they  lend  grandeur  to  these  pictur- 
esque upheavals  whose  rugged  beauty  is  intensified 
by  the  sparkling  streams  that  fall  in  dancing  mirth- 
fulness  down  their  broken  slopes,  and  the  majestic 
growth  that  gives  stately  graudeur  to  the  towering 
peaks  that  spend  their  existence  in  cloudland. 
Such  valleys,  possessing  such  distinctive  fertility, 
lying  in  the  lap  of  the  beautiful  Blue  Ridge,  are 
enough  to  give  an  eloquent  touch  to  the  most  pro- 
soaic  pen  and  fill  to  exultancy  the  most 
mercenary  real  estate  shark  who  ever  disparaged 
beauteous  surroundings  in  order  that  a  greedy 
purse  might  be  filled. 

From  Knoxville  east  to  the  Atlantic  ocean  there 
is  not  a  town  or  city  that  has  cross  or  competitive 
railroads,  with  outlets  to  a  market  where  manu- 
facturers could  dispose  of  their  goods.  The  Charles- 
ton, Cincinnati  and  Chicago  railroad  is  now  com- 
pleted from  Charleston,  S.  C,  to  Marion,  N.  C.  The 
contract  for  the  completion  of  this  road  to  Ashland, 
on  the  Ohio  River,  is  let,  and  a  portion  of  the  road 
already  graded.  This  road  crosses  the  Western 
North  Carolina,  a  division  of  the  Richmond  and  Dan- 
ville railroad,  at  Marion,  N.  C,  and  the  East  Tenn- 


essee, Virginia  and  Georgia  railroad,  at  Johnson 
City,  Tenn.,  thereby  making  Johnson  City,  Tenn., 
and  Marion,  N.  C,  the  only  two  cities  east  of  Knox- 
ville, and  the  only  points  between  Knoxville  and 
the  Atlantic  ocean,  a  distance  of  about  500  miles, 
that  have  competitive  railroads,  or  at  which  a  man- 
ufacturer can  establish  business,  as  competitive 
freight  rates  to  a  manufacturer  are  of  great  impor- 
tance and  an  indispensable  necessity  to  his  success, 
and  this  we  all  know  can  only  be  obtained  where 
there  are  two  or  more  independent  traffic  lines, 
such  as  Marion,  N.  C,  now  enjoys. 

From  the  notes  of  a  thoughtful  writer,  who  has 
spent  his  life  in  western  North  Carolina,  I  quote 
the  following: 

CLIMATE. 

Any  one,  from  the  foregoing  description,  will  re- 
alize at  a  glance  that  the  climate  of  such  a  territory 
must  be  drv,  elastic,  bracing,  exhilarating  and 
healthful.  The  cold  winds  from  the  north  are  brok- 
en by  the  protecting  heights  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
thrown  up  high  in  the  atmospheric  currents,  leav- 
ing the  entire  county  pleasant  and  protected. 

The  county  is  a  grandly  shaped  cove  or  hollow 
in  the  great  range  of  mountains  surrounding  it,  and 
no  better  spot  can  be  found  for  healthfulness. 
There  are  no  cold,  steady  winds  in  winter.  Snow 
falls  rarely,  and  is  of  short  duration.  Violent 
snowstorms  are  unknown. 


THE  UWHARRIE  RIVER. 

WHAT  IS  SAID  OF  IT. 


GOLD  MINING  IN  N.  C. 

The  Uwharrie  River  Section  the  Richest 
in  the  State. 

"Take  a  panful  of  dirt  anywhere  on  my  land  and 
if  it  doesn't  show  gold  I  will  give  you  any  fifty  acres 
I  own.'' 

What  do  you  think  of  that  for  an  offer  ?  A  repre- 
sentative of  the  Journal  was  in  Montgomery  coun- 
ty a  few  days  ago  and  the  above  proposition  was 
made  to  him  by  several  land  owners  in  what  is 
known  as  the  Uwharrie  river  section,  the  best  min- 
ing locality,  but  the  least  known  of  any  in  the  State. 

Up  to  a  few  months  ago  it  was  a  long,  hard  drive, 
forty  miles  over  rough  roads,  but  since  the  comple- 
tion of  the  Yadkin  railroad  a  drive  of  ten  or  twelve 
miles  takes  you  to  the  center  of  it.  If  you  desire  to 
see  the  different  methods  used  in  obtaining  gold, 
this  is  the  place  to  go,  for  in  a  distance  of  ten  miles, 
beginning  at  the  mouth  of  the  Uwharrie,  and 
not  more  than  one  mile  from  it  on  either  side,  you 
can  see  all  the  processes  used  for  saving  gold,  from 
the  crudest  to  the  most  elaborate. 

If  you  like  we  will  take  a  trip  through  the  coun- 
try together.  Starting  from  Salisbury  we  go  down 
the  Yadkin  railroad  to  Albemarle,  the  county  seat 
of  Stanly,  and  hiring  a  conveyance  we  start  next 
morning  for  the  Eldorado  of  North  Carolina.  After 
a  pleasant  drive  of  eight  miles  we  cross  the  Yadkin 
river  just  north  of  the  Uwharrie,  and  on  inquiring 
we  find  we  are  only  three  quarters  of  a  mile  from 
the  Moratock  mines,  so  we  decide  to  make  that  our 
first  objective  point.  Arriving  at  the  mine  we  find 
that  the  greatest  activity  prevails.  Mr.  Muffly,  the 
superintendent,  is  getting  the  new  mill  ready  to  be- 
gin work,  and  in  a  week's  time  expects  to  begin 
milling  ore  with  ten  stamps.  We  are  shown  about 
the  mine  bv  the  superintendent,  and  see  huge  piles 
of  ore,  in  which  you  can  sometimes  see  the  gold 
sparkling,  nicely  stacked  up  at  the  head  of  a  tram- 
way, ready  to  be  put  in  the  cars  and  conveyed  to  the 
mill,  about  three  hundred  yards  down  the  moun- 
tain. The  mine  is  being  worked  as  an  open  cut, 


16 


that  is,  no  shafts  are  being  sunk,  and  everything  is 
expected  to  go  through  the  mill  from  the  grass  roots 
down.  We  learn  that  the  property  is  owned  by 
three  northern  parties,  and  that  it  is  a  close  com- 
pany and  no  stock  is  for  sale. 


HOW  GOLD  IS  PANNED. 

Leaving  the  Moratock  we  find  ourselves,  after  a 
circuitous  route  of  half  a  mile,  at  the  Worth  mine, 
and  here  we  are  initiated  in  the  mysteries  of  us- 


a  good  part  of  the  population  depend  en- 
tirely on  the  gold  that  they  get  out  of  the 
streams  tor  their  living'.  Here  we  are  also 
shown  considerable  quantities  of  the  pre- 
cious metal,  and  are  allowed  to  handle  one 
nugget  worth  several  hundred  dollars. 

Mr.  Sanders,  the  proprietor  of  one  of  the 
stores^  goes  over  to  the  Sanders  Mine  and 
shows  us  where  not  less  than  $50,000  in 
gold  nuggets  were  taken  out  in  one  month 
about  a  year  ago  by  the  people  living  in 
the  neighborhood.     Since  then  Senator 


NEGROES  WORKING  SAND  AND  GRAVEL  WITH  PAN  AND  ROCKER. 


ing  the  pan  and  hand  rocker.  We  hear  a  peculiar 
noise  on  the  branch  below  us,  and  wending  our  way 
in  that  direction  we  find  an  old  man  busily  engaged 
in  rocking  what  looks  to  us  like  an  old  barrel  sawn 
through  lengthwise.  He  tells  us  this  is  a  hand 
rocker.  The  dirt  and  rocks  are  put  in  it  with  sev- 
eral buckets  of  water,  and  with  a  motion  like  rock- 
ing a  baby's  cradle  the  dirt  is  dissolved  and  is  pour- 
ed out  with  the  water.  This  is  kept  up  until  the 
rocks  are  all  clean,  and  then  by  a  different  motion 
all  the  heavier  matter  is  settled  to  the  bottom  and 
the  lighter  rocks  are  thrown  out.  When  this  has 
been  continued  until  there  is  but  very  little  left 
in  the  bottom  the  gold  is  picked  out  and  the  rocker 
is  ready  to  be  refilled.  We  also  see  at  this  place  the 
panning  operation  going  on,  which  is  done  in  very 
much  the  same  way,  only  on  a  much  smaller  scale , 
a  pan  about  the  size  of  a  common  frying  pan  being 
used. 

Wishing  to  locate  ourselves,  and  knowing  no  other 
point  to  inquire  for,  we  find  that  we  are  half  a  mile 
from  the  Uwharrie. 

Two  hundred  yards  below,  at  the  forks 
of  a  road,  we  find  two  stores,  and  are  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  gold— dust  gold— is  a 
common  currency  of  the  country,  and  that  j 


Spooner  and  associates  have  bought  the 
property,  with  the  Worth  Mine  and  sev- 
eral others,  and  expect  to  put  up  an  ex- 
tensive hydraulic  plant  in  the  near  fut- 
ure. 

Leaving  the  Sanders  mine  we  go  up  the  river,  tak- 
ing our  time,  by  way  of  Cedar,  Haw,  Buck  Mountain, 
Bird,  Mosely,  Adeline,  Hog  Pen  Branch,  Dry  Hollow 
and  Bunnell  Mountain  mines,  all  gravel,  and  see  the 
Lone:  Tom,  Sluice  Boxes  and  Log  Rocker  in  operation. 
The  Long  Tom  is  a  long  box-like  concern  with  sides 
only  a  few  inches  high  ;  along  the  bottom,  which  is 
about  two  feet  wide,  is  nailed  cross  strips,  and  at  the 
upper  end  raised  above  the  bottom  is  a  piece  of  sheet 
iron  punched  full  of  holes  and  water  running  on  it. 
On  this  is  placed  the  dirt  to  be  washed  and  the  water 
carries  everything  except  the  coarse  rocks  through 
the  holes  on  to  the  bottom  of  the  box,  the  heavier 
particles,  such  as  gold,  remaining,  while  the  dirt  is 
carried  away  by  the  water.  The  Sluice  Box  is  simply 
a  trough  with  a  flat  bottom,  across  which  are  nailed 
strips  or  riffles.  It  is  placed  in  the  creek  so  that 
water  will  run  through  it  and  the  dirt  is  dumped 
into  it  and  carried  off  by  the  water,  leaving  any  nug- 
gets that  mav  have  been  in  it  lodged  against  the 
I  riffles.   The  Log  Rocker  is  a  section  of  a  large  tree 


17 


hollowed  out  with  grooves  cut  in  the  bottom  in  which 
quick-silver  is  placed  ;  a  small  stream  of  water  flows 
into  it  at  the  upper  end  and  the  dirt  is  gradually  fed 
into  it  and  washed  down  by  a  rocking  motion  over 
the  quick-silver,  which  takes  up  the  gold  as  soon  as  it 
touches  it.  This  is  a  slow  process,  but  an  excellent 
one  when  the  gold  is  fine. 

At  Burneys  bridge,  ten  miles  above  the  mouth  of 
the  Tlwharrie,  we  cross  that  stream  and  start  down  it. 
One  mile  and  a  half  from  the  bridge  we  come  to  the 
Kussell  mine,  owned  by  an  English  company,  where 
seventy  head  of  stamps  are  crushing  the  ore  night 
and  day. 

A  mile  below  the  Russell,  and  one  half  mile  from 
the  river,  is  the  Appalachian  mine  owned  by  another 
English  company.  At  this  place  the  mill  (forty 
stamps)  is  not  running  but  the  pumps  are  lifting  the 
water  in  a  steady  stream  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  below.  Mr.  Skirm,  the  superintendent,  shows 
us  through  the  mill  and  explains  the  modus  operandi 
of  treating  the  ore  from  the  time  it  is  blasted  out 
until  the  gold  is  extracted  and  melted  into  bars. 

Leaving  the  Appalachian  we  pass  by  the  Morris 
Mountain,  Sally  Coggins,  Crump  and  Pass  Harris 
mines.   At  the  latter  five  miles  above  the  mouth  of 


the  river  we  strike  across  the  country  for  home,  leav- 
ing the  mining  section  behind  us  and  convinced  that 
if  we  were  moneyed  men  instead  of  poor  newspaper 
scribes  we  would  pitch  our  tent  in  this  land  of  gold. 

Had  this  locality  been  in  California  it 
would  have  been  torn  to  pieces  years 
ago,  but  capital  and  enterprise  are 
sadly  lacking  in  this  part  of  the  Old 
North  State. 

Take  for  instance  the  Uwharrie  river, 
a  small  stream  one  hundred  feet  wide, 
known  to  be  rich  in  gold,  the  center  of 
this  district,  every  vein  in  the  section 
crossing  it,  every  foot  of  land  on  the 
slopes  of  the  mountains  which  shut  it 
in  showing  gold,  and  every  stream 
emptying  into  it  having  been  success- 
fully worked  for  gold,  and  still  the  first 
thing  towards  working  its  bed  has 
never  been  done. 

The  day  can  not  be  far  distant  when 
8tl\  these  facts  will  be  known  to  the 
outside  world,  and  fortunes  will  be 
made  by  those  who  take  advantage  of 
it.— -From  the  Danville  Journal. 


THE  COOK  AMALGAMATOR  WITH  PLACER  ATTACHMENT. 


The  above  cut  shows  the  new  Placer  Attachment  which  converts  the  Cook  Amal- 
gamator into  a  very  valuable  and  efficient  Placer  Machine.  This  attachment  is  set  on  at 
the  front  end  of  the  Amalgamator  and  is  operated  from  the  driving  spindle.  It  consists 
of  a  double  screening  cylinder,  the  inner  screen  of  which  has  a  f-inch  mesh  and  the 
outer  screen  a  ^  mesh.  The  auriferous  dirt  runs  directly  from  the  sluice  box  into  the 
cylinder  of  the  Placer  Attachment  where  it  is  screened  down  to  XV  of  an  inch,  the 
screenings  passing  directly  into  the  cylinder  of  the  Amalgamator  while  the  refuse  is 
carried  through  to  the  discharge  spout  by  the  spiral  channels  in  the  cylinder.  Gold 
larger  than  one  tenth  of  an  inch  would  be  caught  in  the  riffles  of  the  sluice  box.  These 
are  the  machines  to  be  used  on  our  Uwharrie  River  property. 


18 


UWHARRIE  RIVER  REPORT.    No.  I 

By  N.  S.  HIGGINS,  Mining  Engineer. 


Gentlemen  :  Prior  to  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Cali- 
fornia, North  Carolina's  product  of  gold  was  the  larg- 
est of  any  State  in  the  Union,  in  fact,  one  fifth  of  all 
the  gold  coined  at  the  various  mints  in  the  United 
States  was  the  product  of  this  State,  excepting,  of 
course,  the  re-coining  of  foreign  bullion  and  coins. 

In  the  State  of  North  Carolina  no  county  has  been 
more  productive  of  gold  than  Montgomery,  along 
that  section  of  the  county  drained  by  the  Uwharrie 
River.  Numerous  creeks  and  branches  empty  into 
it,  conveying  the  drift  from  the  hill-sides. 

Among  the  various  creeks  and  branches  beginning 
nearest  its  mouth  on  the  Yadkin  River  may  be 
named  Island  Creek,  along  which  many  gravel  beds 
are  found,  formed  by  the  slow  decomposition  and 
drift  from  the  hill-sides,  which  in  places  were  con- 
centrated by  the  wash  of  the  creek  into  rich  deposit 
of  gold  ;  a  large  portion  of  which  occurred  in  nug- 
gets from  a  few  pennyweights  to  one,  two  and  three 
pounds  in  weight,  the  origin  of  most  of  this  gold 
being  from  small  ^surface  veins  running  through  the 
sedimentary  slates  and  formations. 

Next  to  order  is  Dutchman  Creek,  on  which  rich 
diggings  were  found. 

Next  {going  up  the  Uwharrie  River  is  the  Wor,th 
Branch,  on  which  the  old  Worth  mine  is  located, 
which  in  years  gone  by  produced  a  large  amount  of 
gold  by  milling  the  ores  occurring  in  the  slate  veins 
on  the"  property ;  the  mine  not  being  located  on  the 
branch  proper  but  on  a  little  prong  of  it  flowing 
from  the  northeast. 

Near  by  and  above  the  Worth  branch  comes  Cedar 
Creek.  On  a  prong  flowing  into  it  is  the  recent  extra- 
ordinary Tebe  Sanders  gold  find  which  so  far  as  has 
been  developed,  proves  to  be  a  rich  surface  deposit 
of  gold  resulting  from  the  decomposition  of  the 
slates  and  the  disintegration  of  the  outcrops  of  a 
number  of  a  small  veins  running  through  the  forma- 
tion. Many  of  the  beds  of  gritv  along  down  this 
branch  were  rich  in  gold  and  paid  to  clean  up  with 
hand-rockers  from  year  to  year  as  they  accumulated. 
This  creek  and  many  others  going  towards  the  head 
of  the  Uwharrie  River  were  rich  in  gold,  affording 
good  sluice  and  rocker  washings. 

Haw  branch  and  the  Buck  Mt.  on  the  East  and  the 
Cotton  mine  on  the  West  were  all  gold  producers. 

Spencer  Creek  with  Bunnell  Mt.  on  its  waters  pro- 
duced a  great  deal  of  coarse  gold,  the  surface  to  the 
top  of  this  mountain  showing  good  pannings. 

On  the  West,  McLeans  Creek  and  the  Pass  Harris 
Mines  produced  more  or  less  gold,  and  further  up 
the  river  the  Crump  Mine  for  the  time  being  was  a 
wonderful  producer  of  gold,  a  great  deal  of  which 
was  in  nuggets  of  considerable  size  and  value. 

On  the  East  and  still  further  up  the  river  the  Steele 
Mine,  or  Genessee,  is  located,  which  has  produced  a 
large  amount  of  gold  from  the  slate  viens.  The 
small  branch  running  through  this  property  and  the 
Tebe  Sanders  tract  and  mine,  was  rich  in  fine  gold, 
and  small  pieces  of  the  slates  showing  a  great  deal  of 
coarse  gold,  indicating  other  veins  on  these  proper- 
ties that  still  remain  undeveloped. 

Then  as  we  progress  towards  the  head  of  the 
Uwharrie  River  we  find  the  Appalachian  and  the 
Russell  mines,  the  latter  being  a  large  hill  of  partially 
decomposed  slates  through  which  numerous  small 
veins  are  running  in  almost  every  direction,  creating 
an  enormous  mass  of  low  grade  ores. 

Many  other  localities  might  be  named  along  the 
river  from  its  source  to  its  mouth  rich  in  gold,  but 
enough  has  been  stated  to  show  that  the  Uwharrie 
passes  through  a  section  of  the  State  especially  rich 
in  vein  ores  and  sedimentary  formations  from 
which  the  gold-bearing  beds  in  the  creeks  and 
"branches  have  been  formed,  not  so  much  by  the 
force  of  waters,  but  beds  of  till  or  initial  drift  that 
have  slowly  moved  down  the  hill-sides  by  successive 
freezing,  thawing  and  gravitation  aided  by  the  mois- 


ture from  snows  and  either  gentle  or  pelting  rains, 
filling  up  the  hollows,  gulches  and  ravines,  the 
drainage  of  which,  increased  by  springs  on  the  hill- 
sides, forming  branches  and  creeks  which  have 
moved  these  gravel  beds  into  the  river  as  they  have 
accumulated ;  the  location  and  value  of  such  accu- 
mulations changing  as  they  concentrate  along  the 
wash  of  the  streams  from  year  to  year;  storms 
which  produce  sudden  rises  in  the  creeks  and 
branches  during  exceptionally  wet  weather  booming 
such  deposits  lower  and  lower  down  the  streams  and 
into  the  river,  creating  bars  or  sand  bottoms  above 
any  obstruction  to  their  flow  or  in  their  bends,  such 
deposits  may ,  now  be  seen  all  along  down  the 
Uwharrie  as  it  flows  through  one  of  the  richest  sec- 
tions of  the  State  in  gold. 

The  proposition  to  practically  work 
these  bars  and  flats,  if  properly  conduct- 
ed, must  result  in  rich  finds  of  gold  and 
develop  many  rich  veins  of  precious 
metal  other  than  gold.  This  field  of 
enterprise  is  open  and  a  new  one  here 
to  be  developed. 

From  what  has  been  heretofore  stated 
in  regard  to  the  value  of  all  the  streams 
emptying  into  the  Uwharrie  and  the  rich 
mines  on  either  side  of  the  stream  that 
have  been  worked  to  great  profit,  and 
rich  and  extensive  surface  finds  of  gold 
as  a  Crump,  Pass  Harris,  Morris  Moun- 
tain, Bunnell  Mountain,  Tebe  Sanders, 
Island  Creek,  Dutchman  Creek  and 
others,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  bed 
of  the  Uwharrie  River  is  rich  in  gold;  in 
fact,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  suppose 
otherwise. 

The  foregoing  statements  are  the  result  of  per- 
sonal tests,  examinations  and  observations. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

ISigned]         H.  S.  HIGGINS,  M.  E. 

Feb.  4th,  1890. 


WHAT  EDISON,  THE  GREAT  ELECTRICIAN 
AND  INVENTOR  OF  THE  PHONO- 
GRAPH, SAYS  : 

Prof.  Edison  has  engaged  rooms  in  Char- 
lotte for  one  year.  He  says  he  came  here 
because  he  considers  North  Carolina  the 
richest  mineral  country  in  the  world. — 
Carolina  Watchman,  Feb.  20, 1890. 


SOLD  FOR  $30,000. 
Latest  from  Montgomery. 

We  learn  from  parties  from  Montgom- 
ery County,  who  were  in  town  a  few  days 
ago,  that  the  gold  fever  is  still  high  and 
numbers  of  experts  from  the  North  are  in 
the  Uwharrie  river  section  ready  to  gob- 
ble up  everything  that  is  found  at  good 
prices.  Several  good  prospects  have  been 
opened  lately.  Among  them,  one  on  Geo. 
Henderson's  land,  found  by  Gabriel  Har- 
ris, of  Eldorado;  this  find  is  a  small 
quartz  vein,  very  rich,  and  only  about 
three  feet  from  the  Uwharrie  River  and 
running  across  that  stream  just  below 
the  Saunders  tract. 

It  had  only  just  been  uncovered  when  Mr. 
Coleman,  of  Thomasville,  arrived  on  the 
scene  and  took  a  ninety-days'  option  on  it 
for  $30,000.— Carolina  Watchman,  Feb.  27, 
1890. 


19 


$2,000  AT  A  DOUBLE  BLAST.  i  nanza  Indeed— as  this  has  proved  to 

be  naturally  creates  excitement.  *  *  * 
Senator  Hearst's  Opinion.  *  *  *   •    but  those  gentlemen  from 

the  Northwest  who  were  there  Tues- 
14  From  two  blasts  we  are  told  that  I  day,  were  perfectly  astounded,  and 
not  less  than  $2,000  worth  of  pure  j  Senator  Hearst  was  heard  to  say  that 
gold  nuggets  were  quickly  gathered  he  had  seen  the  rich  mines  of  Cali- 
up,  and  this  does  not  include  the  gold  fornia  but  THIS  WAS  THE  RICHEST 
that  was  yet  to  be  separated  from  the  !  GOLD-DEPOSIT  HE  HAD  EVER 
quartz.   *  SEEN."— From    the   Carolina  Watch- 

*  *  *  *  Such  a  mine— a  veritable  bo-   man,  Jan.  20,  1890. 


[From  The  New  York  Sun,  June  7,  1891.] 

MILLIONS  IN  GOLD  AND  GEMS. 


A  WONDERFUL  NEW  ELDORADO  IN  THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  MOUNTAINS. 


Diamonds  and  Other  Precious  Stones,  Gold  and  Many  Rare  Minerals  Found 
in  Marvelous  Muddy  Creek  Valley— Where  Gold  Dust  is  the  Every-day 
Currency— Geological  Marvels  which  Astonish  the  Scientific  Men- 
Gold  Mines  which  Have  Produced  More  than  Two  Millions 
Each— Only  Twenty-four  Hours  from  New  York— Four 
Men  Take  $40,000  in  a  Month  From  the  Edge 
of  a  Swamp— Smashing  a  Monster  Diamond 
on  an  Anvil  to  Test  it —  Twenty-eight 
Pound  Nugget. 


Ninety-nine  New  Yorkers  out  of  one  hundred  if  | 
asked  w'here  the  precious  metals  are  mined  in  the 
Atlantic  States  would  probably  declare  off-hand  that 
there  is  no  gold  mine  worthy  of  the  name  east  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  yet  it  is  a  fact  that  within 
twenty-four  hours  of  this  metropolis  there  live  peo- 
ple who  do  their  trading  and  pay  their  taxes  with  i 
gold  dust  and  nuggets  which  they  have  dug  from  the  j 
valleys  in  which  they  live. 

The  true  story  of  the  mineral  wealth  of  western  ■ 
North  Carolina  "and  northwestern  Georgia  is  a  record  | 
that  seems  to  border  so  closely  on  the  fabulous  that 
it  will  arouse  incredulity  as  well  as  astonishment,  j 
The  easily  verified  features  of  the  narrative  are  j 
second  in  interest  only  to  the  history  of  the  Pacific  I 
Coast  Eldorado.    The  California  gold  excitement  j 
was,  indeed,  the  principal  cause  of  tbe  nondevelop- 
ment  of  the  partially  discovered  riches  of  these  east- 
ern mountains.   The  war  and  subsequent  demorali-  | 
zation  were  later  causes,  and  it  has  not  been  until 
very  recently  that  the  wealth  of  the  region  has  been 
investigated  by  competent  experts,  and  with  marvel- 
ous results.    Nvhere  one  million  has  already  been 
taken  out  by  negroes  and  poor  whites,  with  rude 
shovel  and  pan,  many  more  millions  are  waiting  to  I 
be  brought  to  light  by  intelligent  labor  and  ade-  j 
quate  machinery. 

Get  into  a  Pullman  car  in  Jersey  City  at  4:30  j 
o'clock  some  afternoon,  and  leave  the  same  car  the 
next  afternoon  at  Marion,  the  county  seat  of  McDowell 
County  in  western  North  Carolina.  The  town  is 
about  fifty  miles  east  of  Asheville,  the  new  mountain 
resort  where  Yanderbilt  is  building  his  magnificent 
country  mansion.  It  is  a  town  in  process  of  transfor- 
mation just  now,  is  Marion.  It  is  enjoying  a  boom.and 
speculation  in  town  lots  is  rife.  The  splendid  scen- 
ery and  climatic  advantages  and  the  completion  of 
a  new  railroad  are  the  reasons  for  the  burst  of  pros- 
perity, and  not  the  mineral  wealth  hidden  near  by. 


A  Sux  reporter,  who  had  reached  Marion  by  the 
afternoon  train,  from  the  North,  a  few  days"  ago, 
went  into  one  of  the  village  stores  to  make  a  small 
purchase.  Bending  over  opposite  sides  of  the  counter 
were  the  shopkeeper  and  a  customer,  a  tall,  bronzed, 
roughly  dressed  countryman  who  apparently  had 
just  come  in  from  his  "farm  wagon.  Between  the 
two  was  a  small  pair  of  jeweler's  balances.  In  one 
pan  were  several  small  weights,  and  in  the  other  a 
little  heap  of  brigbt  yellow  grains  and  dust. 

"I  can  allow  you  only  eighty-five  cents  a  penny- 
weight for  that  dust,"  the  shopkeeper  was  saying. 

"It's  worth  ninety-five,"  was  the  reply.  "Ther's 
a  nugget  that'll  weigh  four  pennyweights,  purer 
than  coin  and  worth  more'n  a  dollar  a  weight." 

"But  it  isn't  clean  dust.  It  won't  average  over 
eighty-five  cents." 

The  customer  had  picked  out  the  goods  he  wanted, 
and  after  more  haggling  a  bargain  was  struck.  Then 
the  shopkeeper  went  to  his  safe  and  brought  out  an 
ordinary  glass  tumbler  almost  filled  with  gold  dust 
and  nuggets.  On  top  was  a  rough,  porous-appearing 
lump,  about  as  large  as  a  peacan  nut.  The  shop- 
keeper said  it  was  worth  about  fifteen  dollars.  The 
tumblerful  of  gold  weighed  rather  more  than  three 
pounds,  and  was  worth  about  one  thousand  dollars. 
It  had  been  nearly  six  weeks  in  accumulating,  and 
the  owner  intended  sending  it  to  the  mint  in  a  few 
days  to  be  coined,  according  to  his  usual  custom.  A 
large  part  of  his  out-of-town  trade,  he  said,  was  car- 
ried on  with  native  gold  as  the  medium  of  exchange. 
He  had  become  so  expert  in  handling  the  dust  that 
he  could  tell  almost  at  a  glance  where  it  had  come 
from.  Its  color  varied  considerably.  Some  of  it  was 
a  verv  light  straw  color,  as  though*  there  was  silver 
in  it,"  while  the  other  was  much  darker  and  more 
coppery. 

Gold"is  found  in  North  Carolina  in  localities  too 
numerous  to  mention,  from  the  central  portion  of 


20 


the  State  almost  to  the  Tennessee  boundary.  The 
yield  with  primitive  slave  labor  for  twenty-five  years 
before  the  war  was  sufficient  to  keep  employed  a 
mint  at  Charlotte,  where  more  than' $5,000,000  was 
coined.  Yet  little  has  been  done  with  improved 
methods  and  machinery  to  develop  the  hidden 
riches  of  a  wide  extent  of  territory.  Deposits  have 
been  discovered  recently  and  tested  with  results 
which,  if  told  of  some  newly  explored  corner  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  would  strart  a  fresh  gold  fever  through 
the  country.  It  need  not  be  said  that  the  field  will 
be  no  longer  neglected.  Already  the  most  valuable 
properties  have  been  bought  by  strong  holders,  and 
late  comers  must  make  new  discoveries  for  them- 
selves, for  no  known  rich  mining  lands  are  on  the 
market  in  any  shape. 

For  several  months  the  fame  of  a  little  valley  in 
the  southern  part  of  McDowell  County  has  been 


$40,000  IN  GOLD  TAKEN  FROM  THIS  SPOT. 


spreading  among  geologists.  Prominent  experts 
from  college  faculties  and  from  abroad  have  visited 
it  and  have  been  amazed  by  what  they  have  seen  there. 
Their  interest  has  been  aroused  not  by  the  value  of 
mineral  wealth  displayed,  but  by  the  wonderful 
variety  of  rare  geological  treasures  profusely  exposed. 
It  is  said  that  there  is  but  one  other  spot  in  the  world, 
and  that  in  Australia,  where  so  great  a  variety  of 
geological  riches  has  been  brought  to  light  in  so 
small  a  space.  It  is  an  opening  of  the  earth's  richest 
treasure  house  at  a  point  where  neither  glaciers  nor 
great  cyclic  changes  have  succeeded  in  concealing 
the  secret.  The  precious  metals  occupy  an  unim- 
portant space  in  scientific  estimation  in  the  long  list  of 
rare  things  that  are  found  there.  Diamonds  and  other 
gems  are  included  among  them.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  when  a  man  walked  into  Tiffany's  in  Union 
Square  last  winter  with  a  diamond  weighing  five 
and  one  half  carats,  which  he  said  had  been  found 
in  a  spring  in  North  Carolina,  the  great  jewelers  po- 
litely expressed  doubts  about  the  truth  of  the 
story.  But  they  believed  it  after  their  expert  had 
visited  the  spot  and  investigated  the  whole  matter, 
and  since  then  Tiffany  &  Co.  have  bought  a  good 
many  precious  stones  from  the  same  North  Carolina 
valley. 

Already  there  have  been  taken  from  this  same 
little  valley,  rubies,  sapphires,  beryl,  moonstones, 
jasper,  garnets,  zircon,  gold  ($1,000,000  or  more),  sil- 
ver, copper,  platinum,  lead,  iron,  mica,  kaoline, 
besides  the  rare  and  unfamiliar  minerals,  no  less 
than  fifty-six  on  the  list  thus  far.  It  is  little  wonder 
that  enthusiastic  college  professors  who  have  gone 
there  to  stay  a  day  or  two  have  remained  a  month 


and  then  gone  away  filled  With  amazement  by  the 
successive  surprises  of  their  visit.  . 

Muddy  Creek  Valley  is  the  name  of  this  spot  of 
many  marvels.  It  is  a  winding,  irregular  valley, 
averaging  less  than  half  a  mile  wide  and  about  ten 
miles  long.  It  was  a  spot  rather  difficult  to  reach  un- 
til about  a  month  ago.  Now  the  Charleston,  Cincin- 
nati and  Chicago  road  runs  within  about  two  and 
one-half  miles  of  it.  Formerly  it  was  necessary  to 
drive  sixteen  miles  from  Marion  over  a  so-called 
road,  where  progress  could  be  made  at  the  rate  of 
three  miles  an  hour  if  you  were  lucky.  The  trip 
from  the  new  railroad  to  the  valley  is  by  no  means  an 
easy  one.  It  is  a  wild,  rugged,  picturesque  country. 
The  bed  of  a  boiling  stream  is  the  public  highway 
for' a  part  of  the  distance.  The  water  is  not  more 
than  a  foot  deep,  but  through  it  you  must  drive  in 
one  place  for  twenty  rods  or  more.  The  rushing 
stream  is  little  more  than  axle  wide,  and  the  trees  on 
either  side  hem  it  in.  If  you  are  on  foot  you  must 
not  attempt  to  go  by  the  road  unless  you  are  prepared 
to  wade.  You  must  follow  a  faint  trail  over  the  hill, 
which  will  lead  you  to  your  destination  by  another 
route. 

When  you  enter  the  mountain-inclosed  valley  you 
can  not  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  beauty  of  the 
scene.  You  make  your  way  from  a  heavily  timbered 
hill  down  to  the  bank  of  turbid  Muddy  Creek,  and 
ford  the  stream.  The  mountains  about  you  are 
several  of  them  more  than  a  mile  high.  Their  out- 
lines are  clear  cut  in  thejthin,  bracing  air.  The  ele- 
vation of  nearly  two  thousand  feet,  with  plenty  of 
ozone  to  breathe,  makes  the  sun's  rays  less  oppressive 
than  on  Broadway  on  a  warm  day.  The  evidences 
of  the  search  for  gold  are  before  you  at  first  glance. 
The  yellow  stream,  more  discolored  than  the  Mis- 
souri or  the  Sacramento,  has  not  run  clear  for  half  a 
century,  and  all  on  account  of  the  work  it  has  had  to 
do  in  washing  the  precious  metal  from  the  earth  in 
which  it  was  concealed.  Moody  Creek,  it  is  said,  was 
its  name  before  the  discovery  of  gold  in  its  bed  and 
banks,  but  that  gave  place  to  the  present  more  ap- 
propriate appellation  many  years  ago. 

Gold  was  discovered  in  the  vicinity  of  Muddy 
Creek  Valley  in  1827,  according  to  the  most  reliable 
local  records.  Few  people,  white  or  black,  lived  in 
what  was  then  an  almost  untouched  wilderness. 
Settlers  came  in  small  numbers  and  began  to«.wash 
the  gravel  over  which  the  mountain  .streams  ran. 
They  got  good  returns  with  even  the  crude  manual 
methods  which  they  employed.  For  years  they  used 
only  the  shovel  and  pan.  Four  or  five  pounds  of  earth 
were  put  into  a  broad  shallow  pan  and  shaken  and 
washed,  gradually  letting  the  earth  escape  over  the 
edges  until  less  than  a  teaspoonful  remained.  The 
gold,  if  any  there  was, would  be  found  in  these  dregs, 
kept  there  by  its  greater  specific  gravity.  A  single 
speck  of  the  yellow  metal  is  called  a  "  color,"  several 
specks  several  "colors."  Tidy  nuggets  weighing 
from  one  to  several  grains  were  often  found,  but  the 
average  yield  was  perhaps  fifteen  cents  per  pan.  But 
this  meant  good  returns,  for  at  that  rate  an  industri- 
ous miner  could  earn  ten  dollars  a  day,  which  in 
those  days  was  very  high  wages. 

But  it  was  crude  work.  Much  of  the  gold  was  lost 
by  the  careless  process  of  washing.  This  gave  rise 
to  the  old  belief,  which  still  obtains  among  the  old 
miners  of  the  region,  that  gold  grows.  They  say  that 
if  gravel  once  washed  is  left  to  lie  undisturbed  for 
five  or  six  years  and  then  again  treated  by  hydraulic 
process  it  will  yield  as  much  more  gold  as  it  did  orig- 
inally. This  is  quite  true  of  the  old  workings  in 
North  Carolina,  but  the  reason  is  not  to  be  found  in 
the  processes  of  nature,  but  in  the  imperfection  of 
man's  work.  The  prevalence  of  this  idea  that  gold 
grows  has  led  the  natives  to  rewash  some  of  the 
gravel  in  North  Carolina  river  beds  no  less  than  five 
or  six  times,  and  each  time  at  a  profit.  No  doubt  all 
this  gold-bearing  earth  could  be  profitably  reworked 
still  again  by  modern  economic  processes,  for  the 
hydraulic  treatment  of  earth  bearing  free  gold  can 
now  be  applied  with  profit  if  the  yield  is  only  a  few 
cents  per  ton. 


21 


When  the  California  gold  excitement  of  1849  reach- 
ed the  East  there  was  a  stampede  from  the  Georgia 
and  North  Carolina  gold  fields  to  the  new  Eldorado. 
Nearly  all  the  white  men  started  for  the  land  of  gold 
where  fortunes  where  to  be  made  in  a  day.  They 
left  a  sure  thing  for  big  chances,  and  some  of  them 
were  glad  they  did  it  and  some  were  n  ot.  In  all  these 
years  little  had  been  done  in  the  North  Carolina 
fields  except  primitive  placer  mining.  Some  progress 
had  been  made  in  hydraulic  methods,  but  little  or 
nothing  has  been  done  in  the  way  of  vein  work,  the 
digging  and  crushing  of  ore  in  stamp  mills  which 
yield  one  hundred  dollars  where  placer  mining  yields 
one  dollar,  and  the  indolent  slave  owners  who  re- 
mained were  content  to  go  on  in  the  same  way.  They 
found  it  profitable  even  with  unskilled  negro  labor, 
and  they  were  content. 


James  Upton's  slaves  worked  the  Muddy  Creek 
gravel  for  about  ten  years  before  the  war,  and  Upton 
grew  rich  out  of  the  profits  of  their  labor.  A  great 
deal  of  the  gold  which  they  washed  out  did  not 
reach  their  owner's  coffers,  but  they  did  turn  over 
enough  dust  to  enable  him,  as  he  expressed  it,  "  to 
buy  a  new  nigger  every  week  "  for  nearly  two  years. 
Then  the  war  came  and  Jim  Upton's  negroes  became 
free.  They  refused  to  dig  gold  for  him  any  more,  even 
for  wages,  and  the  old  man's  wealth  turned  to 

Eoverty.  The  change  broke  him  down,  and  though 
e  lived  until  about  two  years  ago  he  never  amount- 
ed to  much  after  losing  his  battalion  of  negro  gold 
diggers.  In  cruel  sarcasm,  his  wife  was  universally 
known  in  the  neighborhood  for  years  before  his  death 
as  "  Widow  Upton."  because  "Jim  was  as  good  as 
dead."  But  old  Jim,  while  he  lived,  was  the  best 
authority  on  the  mineral  history  of  the  region  in 
which  he  lived.  He  declared  that  fully  $1,500,000  in 
gold  had  been  scraped  from  the  bed  and  banks  of 
Muddy  Creek  in  the  space  not  more  than  two  miles 
long  and  nowhere  more  than  fifty  feet  wide. 

The  biggest  find  ever  made  in  the  valley  in  gold 
was  a  monster  nugget  which  local  records  say 
weighed  twenty- eight  pounds,  and  was  worth  about 
$8,000.  This  was  found  by  a  white  boy  in  1855.  A 
year  or  two  later  a  negro  woman  found  a  lump 
weighing  three  pounds  worth  nearly  $1,000.  She 
took  it  home,  chopped  it  in  two  with  an  axe,  and 
divided  it  with  her  husband.  They  were  slaves, 
and  they  hid  the  treasure  until  the  war  broke  out, 
when  they  sold  it.  Of  late  years  the  big  nuggets  re- 
ported have  varied  from  thirty  to  sixty  penny- 
weights. 

Old  Bill  Owens  is  the  negro  oracle  of  the  valley. 
Uncle  Bill  is  ninety  years  old,  and  he  is  prob- 
ably the  richest  negro  in  western  North  Carolina. 


He  was  never  a  slave,  and  he  has  dug  gold  for  a  liv- 
ing most  of  his  active  life.  He  declared  that  the  ne- 
groes used  to  take  the  yellow  metal  from  the  earth 
"  not  by  pennyweights  but  by  pounds,"  and  he  says 
nobody  has  any  adequate  idea  of  the  true  yield  "of 
the  valley  in  slavery  days.  Uncle  Bill  used  to  em- 
ploy other  negroes  to  mine  for  him.  He  made  a 
good  thing  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Jackson  Creek 
soon  after  the  war.  He  set  up  a  Long  Tom,  a  sort  of 
sluice  box,  eight  feet  long,  in  which  water  and 
earth  are  shaken,  and  put  a  boy  at  work  with  it. 
Jle  found  about  twenty  pennyweights  of  gold,  worth 
about  twenty  dollars,  in  the  bottom  of  the  Long  Tom 
that  night.  Uncle  Bill  had  several  hands  at  work  on 
another  little  stream,  and  he  transferred  them  all  to 
Jackson  Creek,  and  he  took  out  a  small  fortune 
before  be  exhausted  the  pay  dirt.  When  the  valley 
was  divided  into  small  claims,  he  says  that  Henry 
Clay  owned  one  on  Muddy  Creek.  Nobody  knows 
whether  the  great  commoner  ever  got  any  gold  out 
<  ~  it. 

•After  the  war  the  land  now  considered  of  great 
mineral  value  gradually  concentrated  into  rather 
lew  hands.  Native  mountaineers — half  farmer,  half 
miner — owned  it  in  tracts  of  from  one  hundred  to 
five  hundred  acres.  They  called  themselves  farmers 
because  they  usually  cultivated  a  few  acres  about 
their  homes,  but  most  of  their  time  was  spent  with 
the  pick,  shovel  and  pan,  instead  of  with  the  plow 
and  hoe.  Their  firm  conviction  that  gold  grows  has 
cost  them  fortunes,  or  rather  it  kept  from  their  eyes 
riches  which  scientific  searchers  easily  discovered. 
They  re-worked  the  old  piles  of  earth  until  they 
ceased  to  yield  gold  in  payiug  quantities  under  their 
crude  appliances.  Then  they  began  to  believe  that 
the  mineral  value  of  the  land  had  been  exhausted. 
This  was  at  about  the  time  that  Northern  prospectors 
began  to  visit  the  long-forgotten  fields  in  western 
North  Carolina.  It  was  directly  owing  to  a  visit  of 
an  old  '49er  that  the  Muddy  Creek  Valley  came 
into  its  present  ownership.  He  had  prospected  in 
the  vicinity  a  little  when  the  news  from  California 
came  east.  He  was  quick  to  catch  the  fever,  and  he 
spent  many  years  in  Pacific  coast  mines.  Three  or 
four  years  ago  he  went  back  to  North  Carolina  and 
looked  the  ground  over  with  more  experienced  eyes. 
He  discovered  something  which  the  natives  had 
never  looked  for— some  of  the  sources  of  the  supply 
of  loose  gold  in  the  river  beds.  He  found  some  gold- 
bearing  veins  in  the  upper  portion  of  Muddy  Creek 
Valley.  He  brought  the  news  North,  and  northern 
capitalists  became  interested  in  the  story.  They 
investigated  and  made  tests,  and  then  began  buying 
land.   Private  corporations  were  formed,  and  finally 


L  PANFUL  FROM  THE  MIDDLE  OF  THE  ROAD. 


22 


the  whole  valley  and  some  land  outside  of  it  was 
secured  by  two  or  three  concerns.  In  one  of  them 
two  or  three  United  States  Senators  are  the  principal 
stockholders,  and  an  offer  of  twice  par  for  some 
stock  a  little  while  ago  didn't  bring  out  a  share.  In 
fact,  there  are  no  opportunities  in  sight  for  investors 
in  any  part  of  the  known  gold  territory.  There  are 
mines  near  Charlotte,  one  .  hundred  miles  east  of 
Muddy  Creek,  which  have  yielded  $2,000,000  or  more 
each,  but  they  are  owned  by  close  corporations.  In 
fact,  the  only  way  for  an  ambitious  new  comer  to 
profit  by  North  Carolina's  mineral  advantage  is  tx> 
spy  out  some  new  treasure  and  secure  a  title  to  the 
land  in  which  it  lies 

The  source  of  the  gold  in  Muddy  Creek  has  never 
been  tapped,  except  by  recent  prospectors.  The 
actual  work  of  taking  out  ore  has  been  delayed  for 
three  or  four  years  by  lawsuits.  The  neighbors  of 
the  former  owners  further  down  the  valley  heard  of 
the  discoveries  of  ore  in  veins,  and,  thinking  ,ro 
profit  indirectly  by  the  riches  beyond  their  re^i^ 
they  brought  suit  for  damages  to  their  farms  by  the 
deposit  of  earth  brought  down  by  the  mud-laden 


TAKING  A  PAN  OF  EAKTH  HAPHAZARD  IN  THE  WOODS. 

stream.  While  these  cases,  involving  in  the  aggre- 
gate very  heavy  claims,  were  pending,  nothing  was 
done  in  the  way  of  mining.  These  claims  have 
recently  been  settled,  and  the  active  work  of  mining 
will  soon  be  undertaken.  But  the  work  of  prospect- 
ing has  been  thoroughly  pushed  during  the  interval, 
and  it  has  yielded  results,  some  of  which  are  out- 
lined above.  So  far  no  less  than  thirty-one  veins  of 
gold  ore  have  been  uncovered  and  tested.  They  are 
from  two  inches  to  three  feet  wide,  the  average  being 
more  than  ten  inches.  They  are  each  about  a  mile 
long,  and  they  assay  from  forty  dollars  to  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  dollars  per  ton.  It  is  a  free-milling 
quartz  in  every  case,  and  generally  soft  enough  to  be 
taken  out  with  the  pick  without  blasting.  It  is  an 
interesting  and  unusual  fact  that  not  only  does  the 
vein  matter  itself  contain  gold,  but  the  metal  is 
found  in  paying  quantities  also  in  the  walling,  as 
the  surrounding  rock  is  called.  The  manner  of  lo- 
cating a  vein  of  gold-bearing  quartz  is  interesting. 
It  is  usually  traced  by  means  of  "float  ore,"  so 
called.  Loose  stones  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground 
which  contain  gold  are  usually  found  either  over  a 
vein  or  where  they  would  naturally  roll  by  gravity 
or  the  action  of  water  from  the  vein  itself.   It  is  a 


difficult  matter  very  often,  however,  to  locate  a  vein 
even  when  the  float  ore  indications  are  abundant. 

There  is  another  peculiarity  of  this  strauge  region 
of  geological  marvels.  John  Sprouse,  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Marion  Bullion  Company,  which  owns  a 
large  part  of  the  Muddy  Creek  Valley,  expresses  the 
conviction  that  the  whole  valley  was  once  the  bed  of 
a  large  river.  Mr,  Sprouse  was  returning  from  a  visit 
to  one  of  the  veins  on  a  mountain  side  and  was  walk- 
ing through  a  piece  of  pine  woods  with  a  Sun  re- 
porter and  two  or  three  miners  when  he  broached 
this  theory. 

"  That's  the  only~way  that  I  can  acrount  for  the 
fact/'  he  said,  "  that  we  find  placer  gold  in  a  layer  of 
gravel  almost  anywhere  we  dig  on  these  hillsides. 
I'll  warrant  you'll  find  it  in  paying  quantities,  toor 
anywhere  you  try  for  it." 

"Suppose  we  test  it  right  here,"  suggested  the 
newspaper  man. 

"Agreed,"  replied  the  superintendent,  and  he 
directed  a  miner  with  a  pick  and  shovel  to  dig  a  hole 
where  the  party  had  stopped.  The  location  was 
nearly  one  hundred  feet  higher  than  Muddy  Creek, 
and  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant  from  it. 

The  miner  scraped  away  the  pine  needles  and  vege- 
table mould,  and  dug  through  three  or  four  inches 
of  soft  soil  until  he  struck  a  layer  of  coarse  earth  or 
graVel,  such  as  Sprouse  had  said  would  be  found.  He 
filled  a  pau  with  this,  and  it  was  carried  to  the  house 
to  be  washed  out.  On  the  way,  just  for  a  joke, 
another  panful  was  taken  from  the  middle  of  the 
mountain  road. 

Reaching  the  superintendent's  house,  one  of  the 
miners  panned  both  samples  under  a  stream  of  watei 
running  from  a  trough.  The  dirt  from  the  middle 
of  the  road  showed  two  or  three  "  colors."  Thatdug 
under  the  pines  in  the  woods  was  really  rich.  It  con- 
tained a  tiny  nugget  weighing  two  or  three  grains 
and  several  smaller  bits  of  colors.  A  man  might  net 
bigger  returns  than  at  any  kind  of  skilled  labor  by 
simply  shoveling  dirt  from  under  those  pine  trees  on 
the  mountain  side  and  washing  it  in  an  old  pan  at  a 
water  spout. 

The  richest  deposit  of  gold  in  the  Muddy  Creek 
Valley  is  undoubtedly  in  a  strange  swamp  in  its  very 
center.  The  swamp  is  a  sort  of  pit,  into  which  the 
mineral  wealth  of  the  basin  would  naturally  settle. 
No  man  has  ever  yet  been  able  to  explore  it.  It  is  not 
large  in  area,  but  it  is  a  treacherous,  dangerous  spot. 
The  writer,  in  skirting  its  borders,  with  no  sign  of 
danger,  suddenly  found  his  foothold  disappearing. 
In  an  instant  he  was  half  to  his  knees  in  a  peculiar, 
vari-colored  quicksaud,  that  required  lively  gymnas- 
tics to  escape  from.  A  man  Smalley  and  three 
others  who  owned  the  swamp  several  years  ago  took 
forty  thousand  in  gold  from  the  edge  in  less  than 
thirty  days.  The  mire  and  quicksands  prevented 
their  doing  more  though  the  deposit  grew  richer 
every  foot  they  advanced.  One  of  the  first  things 
done  by  the  present  owners  was  to  dig  a  canal,  at 
considerable  expense,  to  drain  this  swamp.  It  was 
almost  completed  when  the  banks  suddenly  caved 
in  upon  the  ten  men  at  work,  and  it  was  with  great- 
est difficulty  that  they  succeeded  in  escaping  with 
their  lives.  Since  then  such  a  strong  superstition  re- 
garding the  spot  has  seized  the  native  miners  that  not 
one  of  them  can  be  induced  to  work  there  for  any 
wages.  The  swamp  has  been  drained  partially  by 
the  canal,  and  within  a  year  this  work  will  be  com- 
pleted so  that  the  search  for  gold  can  be  prosecuted 
without  danger. 

Graveyard  Hollow  is  another  spot  believed  to  be 
underlaid  with  a  rich  deposit  of  gold.  It  is  an  old 
abandoned  graveyard  in  the  woods,  with  high 
mounds  of  earth  and  tumble-down  headstones 
marking  the  graves.  Dates  ranging  from  1837  to 
1870  were  found  on  these  stones  by  the  Sun  corre- 
spondent, and  apparently  about  two  hundred  bodies 
have  been  buried  there.  Whether  these  will  be  dis- 
turbed in  the  ruthless  search  for  mineral  wealth  can 
not  be  said  yet. 

It  is  the  gems  found  in  the  valley  which  most  excite 
the  wonder  of  geologists  and  other  scientific  men. 
They  never  kill  a  turkey  or  a  chicken  in  the  valley 


23 


now  without  looking  in  its  crop  for  a  possible  ruby 
or  diamond.  Several  precious  stones  have  been 
found  in  this  way.  The  bright,  hard  crystals  to  be 
found  in  the  sand  have  a  great  attraction  for  the 
fastidious  fowls,  which  would  line  their  stomachs 
with  a  full  assortment  of  jewels,  iustead  of  common 
gravel,  if  they  could  find  them.  It  is  only  three  or 
four  years  since  it  was  known  that  there  were  gems 
of  any  value  in  the  valley.  Pretty  baubles  had  of- 
ten been  found  in  the  sand  or  earth,  but  it  was  not 
supposed  they  were  worth  anything.  The  first 
known  diamond  to  be  discovered  was  a  monster,  and 
its  fate  was  such  as  would  make  a  lapidary  tear  his 
hair  in  exasperation. 

A  beautiful,  clear,  white  stone  was  picked  up  by  a 
native  miuer,  who  showed  it  to  his  friends  after  fin- 
ishing his  day's  work.  It  was  a  brilliant  crystal,  even 
in  its  rough  state,  and  as  large  as  a  walnut.  The 
men  all  admired  it,  and  it  was  noticed  that  it  still 
sparkled  after  dark.  It  was  suggested  that  only  a 
diamond  would  show  such  brilliancy  at  night,  and 
the  stone  was  examined  with  renewed  interest. 
Various  tests  to  prove  its  real  nature  were  suggested. 
Finally,  one  individual  who  assumed  to  know  all 
about  it  said  that  a  diamond  was  the  hardest  sub- 
stance in  the  world,  and  that  if  the  crystal  was  real- 
ly a  gem,  it  would  resist  unharmed  all  attempt  to 
break  it.  He  advised  testing  the  stone  with  a  blow 
of  a  hammer  on  an  anvil.  If  it  was  worth  anything 
it  would  not  break.  The  finder  consented,  and  the 
test  was  applied.  When  the  sledge  struck  the  beau- 
tiful stone  of  course  it  flew  into  more  than  a  dozen 
pieces.  It  was  decided  that  the  crystal  was  not  a 
diamond,  but  some  of  the  fragments  were  so  bril- 
liant that  they  were  preserved.  A  visiting  geologist, 
whose  name  the  writer  could  not  learn,  got  hold  of 
one  or  two  of  the  chips  some  time  afterward  and 
promptly  pronounced  them  parts  of  a  diamond  of 
great  purity.  The  original  stone  would  have  been  a 
gem  of  almost  priceless  value. 

There  are  eighteen  known  existing  diamonds 
from  Muddy  Creek  Valley,  all  of  them  found  within 
a  year.  The  largest,  already  mentioned,  weighing 
five  and  one  half  carats,  is  owned  by  Col.  Henry  C. 
Deming,  of  Harrisburg,  general  manager  of  the 
Marion  Bullion  Company.  He  values  it  at  $1,200, 
and  he  has  a  collection  of  miscellaneous  gems  from 
the  valley  worth  several  thousand  dollars.  Garnets 
are  the  most  common  stone  found  of  any  value. 
There  is  a  wealth  of  these.  Almost  a  peck  of  them 
tumbled  out  of  one  of  the  hydraulics  one  day.  They 
are  found  loose  and  in  stone.  In  one  spot  there  is  a 
mass  of  garnet  rock  in  which  they  are  studded  as 
thick  as  plums  in  pudding.  These,  however,  are  of 
no  value  except  as  curiosities. 


Another  interesting  spot  is  the  vicinity  Of  Rattle- 
snake Den,  a  mass  of  great  rocks  where  a  nest  of 
eighteen  or  twenty  rattlesnakes  was  broken  up  three 
or  four  years  ago.   Within  a  radius  of  one  hundred 


PANNING  THE  SAMPLE  FROM  THE  WOODS. 


A  MINER  AT  REST. 


feet,  Prof.  Alfred  Free  found  seven  extremely  rare 
minerals,  besides  a  great  variety  of  more  common 
matter.  Almost  side  by  side  is  rock  hard  as  flint 
and  talc  soft  as  soapstone,  which  can  be  cut  with  a 
knife.  There  is  also  a  fine  building  stone  of  the 
quality  of  granite,  but  streaked  with  oddest  color 
like  the  stripes  of  a  leopard.   It  is  called  leopardite. 

The  deposit  of  mica  is  found  near  a  steep  moun- 
tain top.  It  is  reached  only  after  a  hard  scramble 
to  a  height  of  2,200  feet.  Only  a  small  portion  of  the 
deposit  has  been  uncovered  yet.  The  mica  is  found 
in  great  layers  embedded  in  rock  and  in  the  midst 
of  a  beautiful  deposit  of  clay  which  is  all  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow  streaked  in  fantastic  layers  and  look- 
ing something  like  the  pattern  of  a  Turkish  carpet. 
A  great  patch  of  kaolin e,  soft  and  moist,  in  the  midst 
of  such  a  setting,  appeared  whiter  than  the  driven 
snow  in  winter.  Most  of  the  mica  taken  out  thus  far 
is  not  purely  transparent,  but  speckled.  It  is  found 
in  fairly  large  sheets  however,  many  of  them  meas- 
uring six  by  eight  inches.  North  Carolina,  by  the 
way,  supplies  nearly  three  fourths  of  the  mica  used 
in  the  world. 

While  in  variety  of  geological  riches  no  equal  is 
known  in  this  country  of  the  Muddy  Creek  Valley, 
there  are  several  spots  in  North  Carolina  which  have 
surpassed  it  in  the  production  of  gold.  The  territory 
around  Charlotte  has  the  best  record.  Gold  was  dis- 
covered there  nearly  thirty  years  before  it  was  found 
at  Muddy  Creek.  Tradition  has  it  that  a  big  lump  of 
virgin  gold  found  in  1799  was  used  as  a  weight  to 
keep  the  door  of  his  house  from  slamming  by  John 
Reed,  of  Cabarrus  County,  for  three  years.  In  1802 
he  sold  it  to  a  jeweler  at  Fayetteville  for  $3.50.  The 
present  product  of  gold  in  the  State  is  not  easily  esti- 
mated. The  returns  furnished  state  officials  show  a 
product  of  about  $500,000  a  year ;  but  most  of  the 
gold  mined  in  the  State  never  makes  part  of  any  offi- 
cial record.  There  are  some  sixty  gold  mines  in 
Macklenburg  County,  five  of  which  are  in  the  city  of 
Charlotte  itself,  and  some  $2,000,000  of  northern  capi- 
tal is  invested  in  the  industry. 

TheRudisill  mine,  the  largest  in  the  State,  is  locat- 
ed near  the  terminus  of  Church  Street,  and  the  St. 
Catherine  is  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  Richmond 
and  Danville  depot.  From  Independence  Square  the 


24 


steam  from  the  exhaust  pipes  from  the  Point  mine, 
near  the  end  of  Trade  Street,  can  be  seen  easily, 
while  from  the  site  of  the  new  town  of  Dilworth  can 
be  observed  the  works  of  the  Summit  Hill  mine. 

The  main  shaft  of  the  Rudisill  mine  is  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety  feet  deep,  and  there  are  about  three 
thousand  feet  of  tunnels.  St.  Catherine  mine  is  abe+it 
four  hundred  feet  deep.  Within  a  short  distance  of  the 
city  are  some  very  valuable  mines,  among  which  are 
the  Copp's  Hill,  the  Dunn,  the  Hopewell,  McGinn, 
Arlington,  Clark,  Guarantee,  Baltimore  and  North 
Carolina,  Ferris,  Black,  Stephen,  Wilson,  Sampson, 
Hoover,  Hemby  mines,  Henderson,  Chinquepin,*. 
Mountain,  and  a  number  of  others. 

There  are  at  least  twenty  mines  in  the  county 
which  are  being  constantly  worked,  and  forty  which 
are  worked  at  irregular  intervals.  There  are  some 
extensively  developed  and  prosperous  mines  in  the 
adjoining  counties  of  Rowan,  Cabarrus  and  Union. 
The  ores  vary  considerably  in  quality,  the  lowest 
grade  being  about  forty  dollars  per  ton  and  the  h  \  Jfe 
est  one  hundred  and  .eighty  dollars  per  ton.  *$Lj 
Rudisill  mine  has  produced  since  it  was  first  worked 
82,500,000  in  gold,  and  the  Copp's  Hill  about  $2,000,000. 

Northern  capital  is  becoming  more  and  more  in- 
terested in  the  mineral  Avealth  of  the  South.  It  is  a 
resource  which  has  by  no  means  been  fully  devel 


oped  yet.  The  more  common  as  well  as  the  precious 
metals  are  found  in  paying  quantities  in  the  region 
which  has  been  described.  Iron  in  all  its  most  valu- 
able varieties  is  there  in  great  abundance.  The  great 
revival  in  the  resources  of  the  South  now  just 
opening  will  not  fully  develop  until  her  marvelous 
mineral  wealth  has  been  uncovered.  The  South  to- 
day in  many  respects  has  for  the  pioneer  all  the  charm 
of  a  newly  discovered  country.  Slavery  blinded  her 
people  to  the  treasures  at  their  doors.  The  war 
added  its  paralysis.  Now  they  are  once  more  in  the 
full  vigor  of  their  manhood,  and  wonderful  things 
will  be  told  in  the  next  few  years  of  the  South. 

N.  B.— This  article,  which  appeared  in  the 
N.  Y.  Sun  of  June  7th,  1891,  was  not  solic- 
ited or  paid  for  directly  or  indirectly- by 
our  company,  any  of  its  agents,  or  any 
person  in  any  way  connected  with  it,  and 
so  far  as  we  know  was  merely  a  matter  of 
news.  We  cite  it  here  simply  as  an  exam- 
ple of  what  this  country  is,  and  what  has 
been  and  is  being  done  there. 


FROM  A  MINER  IN  OUR  EMPLOY. 

This  is  to  certify  that  I  was  employed  by  the  North  Carolina  Gold-Mining  and  Bullion  Company  to  do 
some  work  for  gold  in  the  bed  of  the  Uwharrie  river,  in  Montgomery  County.  The  only  instructions  I 
received  were  to  go  to  any  point  on  the  river  and  wash  twenty-one  bushels  (one  cubic  yard)  of  gravel 
from  each  place.  I  was  further  instructed  that  if  I  had  ever  done  any  prospecting  on  the  river,  or  if  I 
knew  of  any  place  where  any  one  else  had  done  any  prospecting,  I  must  go  to  some  other  place,  as  what 
they  wanted  was  a  fair  average  test.  Pursuant  to  these  instructions  I  went  alone  and  washed  one  cubic  yard 
from  a  point  opposite  the  lands  of  Frank  Mullins,  and  as  a  result  obtained  forty-two  grains  of  gold,  and 
another  cubic  yard  from  a  point  opposite  the  lands  of  James  Cotton,  and  as  a  result  obtained  thirty-three 
grains  of  gold ;  and  I  hereby  make  affidavit  that  I  had  never  worked  or  have  never  known  of  anybody  else 
working  in  either  of  these  places  before.  I  furthermore  testify  that  on  account  of  the  water  I  could  not 
get  the  gravel  from  the  center  of  the  stream,  where  it  should  be  much  richer,  but  had  to  take  it  from  the 
shore.  W.  W.  DAVIS. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  the  16th  day  of  October,  1891. 

W.  G.  SMITH,  J.  P.  [Seal.] 

FROM  ANOTHER  OLD  MINER. 

I  am  a  practical  miner  of  thirty- two  years'  experience,  seventeen  of  which  were  spent  in  the  gold  fields 
of  Australia,  and  fifteen  in  the  Uwharrie  river  district  of  North  [Carolina.  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  saying 
that  I  believe  the  prospects  in  the  Uwharrie  river  district  are  better,  as  a  whole,  than  in  any  gold  field  I  have 
ever  been  in.  I  think  myself  fully  capable  of  judging  of  such  things,  and  it  is  my  belief  that  the  bed  of 
the  Uwharrie  river  is  exceedingly  rich  in  gold,  and  if  properly  worked  on  a  large  scale  it  will  yield  rich, 
returns.  W.  H.  MITCHELL. 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  the  16th  -^ay  of  October,  1891. 

W.  G.  SMITH,  J.  P  [Seal.] 


RESUME. 


The  Company  owns  gold  and  min- 
eral land  in  three  of  the  richest  gold 
producing  counties  in  North  Carolina 
(Rutherford,  Montgomery  and  Mc- 
Dowell). 

The  Company  owns  nearly  twenty 
miles  of  the  Uwharrie  river  surround- 
ed by  gold  mines,  crossed  by  gold 
veins,  surrounded  by  mountains 
whose  sides  yield  abundance  of  gold 
and  whose  bed  and  shores  yield  from 
$2  to  $300  in  pure  gold  for  every  cu- 
bic yard  of  sand  or  gravel. 

The  Company  has  succeeded  In 
beating  off  English  and  foreign  capi- 


tal and  has  secured  what  Is  considered 
the  most  valuable  gold-mining  prop- 
erty in  the  United  States  to-day. 

The  Company  by  purchase  and  op- 
tion controlling  large  tracts  of  the  very 
finest  mineral  land  in  these  counties 
must  necessarily,  sooner  or  later,  ex- 
haust its  free  claims  and  the  value  of 
the  Reserved  Claims  held  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  Company  and  its  stock- 
holders will  increase  immensely  in 
value  as  the  adjoining  claims  are 
worked  and  developed.  It  therefore 
behooves  every  wise  business  man 
and  investor  to  take  hold  at  once. 


! 


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